# 1.          Introduction

F# is a scalable, succinct, type-safe, type-inferred, efficiently executing functional/imperative/object-oriented programming language. It aims to be the premier typed functional programming language for the .NET framework and other implementations of the Ecma 335 Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specification. F# was partly inspired by the OCaml language and shares some common core constructs with it.

## 1.1     A First Program

Over the next few sections, we will look at some small F# programs, describing some important aspects of F# along the way. As an introduction to F#, consider the following program:

let numbers = [ 1 .. 10 ]

let square x = x * x

let squares = List.map square numbers

printfn "N^2 = %A" squares

To explore this program, you can:

·         Compile it as a project in a development environment such as Visual Studio.

·         Manually invoke the F# command line compiler fsc.exe.

·         Use F# Interactive, the dynamic compiler that is part of the F# distribution.

### 1.1.1     Lightweight Syntax

The F# language uses simplified, indentation-aware syntactic constructs known as lightweight syntax. The lines of the sample program in the previous section form a sequence of declarations and are aligned on the same column. For example, the two lines in the following code are two separate declarations:

let squares = List.map square numbers

printfn "N^2 = %A" squares

Lightweight syntax applies to all the major constructs of the F# syntax. In the next example, the code is incorrectly aligned. The declaration starts in the first line and continues to the second and subsequent lines, so those lines must be indented to the same column under the first line:

let computeDerivative f x =

let p1 = f (x - 0.05)

let p2 = f (x + 0.05)

(p2 - p1) / 0.1

The following shows the correct alignment:

let computeDerivative f x =

let p1 = f (x - 0.05)

let p2 = f (x + 0.05)

(p2 - p1) / 0.1

The use of lightweight syntax is the default for all F# code in files with the extension .fs, .fsx, .fsi, or .fsscript.

### 1.1.2     Making Data Simple

The first line in our sample simply declares a list of numbers from one through ten.

let numbers = [1 .. 10]

An F# list is an immutable linked list, which is a type of data used extensively in functional programming. Some operators that are related to lists include :: to add an item to the front of a list and @ to concatenate two lists. If we try these operators in F# Interactive, we see the following results:

> let vowels = ['e'; 'i'; 'o'; 'u'];;

val vowels: char list = ['e'; 'i'; 'o'; 'u']

> ['a'] @ vowels;;

val it: char list = ['a'; 'e'; 'i'; 'o'; 'u']

> vowels @ ['y'];;

val it: char list = ['e'; 'i'; 'o'; 'u'; 'y']

Note that double semicolons delimit lines in F# Interactive, and that F# Interactive prefaces the result with val to indicate that the result is an immutable value, rather than a variable.

F# supports several other highly effective techniques to simplify the process of modeling and manipulating data such as tuples, options, records, unions, and sequence expressions. A tuple is an ordered collection of values that is treated as an atomic unit. In many languages, if you want to pass around a group of related values as a single entity, you need to create a named type, such as a class or record, to store these values. A tuple allows you to keep things organized by grouping related values together, without introducing a new type.

To define a tuple, you separate the individual components with commas.

> let tuple = (1, false, "text");;

val tuple : int * bool * string = (1, false, "text")

> let getNumberInfo (x : int) = (x, x.ToString(), x * x);;

val getNumberInfo : int -> int * string * int

> getNumberInfo 42;;

val it : int * string * int = (42, "42", 1764)

A key concept in F# is immutability. Tuples and lists are some of the many types in F# that are immutable, and indeed most things in F# are immutable by default. Immutability means that once a value is created and given a name, the value associated with the name cannot be changed. Immutability has several benefits. Most notably, it prevents many classes of bugs, and immutable data is inherently thread-safe, which makes the process of parallelizing code simpler.

### 1.1.3     Making Types Simple

The next line of the sample program defines a function called square, which squares its input.

let square x = x * x

Most statically-typed languages require that you specify type information for a function declaration. However, F# typically infers this type information for you. This process is referred to as type inference.

From the function signature, F# knows that square takes a single parameter named x and that the function returns x * x. The last thing evaluated in an F# function body is the return value; hence there is no “return” keyword here. Many primitive types support the multiplication (*) operator (such as byte, uint64, and double); however, for arithmetic operations, F# infers the type int (a signed 32-bit integer) by default.

Although F# can typically infer types on your behalf, occasionally you must provide explicit type annotations in F# code. For example, the following code uses a type annotation for one of the parameters to tell the compiler the type of the input.

> let concat (x : string) y = x + y;;

val concat : string -> string -> string

Because x is stated to be of type string, and the only version of the + operator that accepts a left-hand argument of type string also takes a string as the right-hand argument, the F# compiler infers that the parameter y must also be a string. Thus, the result of x + y is the concatenation of the strings. Without the type annotation, the F# compiler would not have known which version of the + operator was intended and would have assumed int data by default.

The process of type inference also applies automatic generalization to declarations. This automatically makes code generic when possible, which means the code can be used on many types of data. For example, the following code defines a function that returns a new tuple in which the two values are swapped:

> let swap (x, y) = (y, x);;

val swap : 'a * 'b -> 'b * 'a

> swap (1, 2);;

val it : int * int = (2, 1)

> swap ("you", true);;

val it : bool * string = (true,"you")

Here the function swap is generic, and 'a and 'b represent type variables, which are placeholders for types in generic code. Type inference and automatic generalization greatly simplify the process of writing reusable code fragments.

### 1.1.4     Functional Programming

Continuing with the sample, we have a list of integers named numbers, and the square function, and we want to create a new list in which each item is the result of a call to our function. This is called mapping our function over each item in the list. The F# library function List.map does just that:

let squares = List.map square numbers

Consider another example:

> List.map (fun x -> x % 2 = 0) [1 .. 5];;

val it : bool list

= [false; true; false; true; false]

The code (fun x -> x % 2 = 0) defines an anonymous function, called a function expression, that takes a single parameter x and returns the result x % 2 = 0, which is  a Boolean value that indicates whether x is even. The -> symbol separates the argument list (x) from the function body (x % 2 = 0).

Both of these examples pass a function as a parameter to another function—the first parameter to List.map is itself another function. Using functions as function values is a hallmark of functional programming.

Another tool for data transformation and analysis is pattern matching. This powerful switch construct allows you to branch control flow and to bind new values. For example, we can match an F# list against a sequence of list elements.

let checkList alist =

match alist with

| [] -> 0

| [a] -> 1

| [a; b] -> 2

| [a; b; c] -> 3

| _ -> failwith "List is too big!"

In this example, alist is compared with each potentially matching pattern of elements. When alist matches a pattern, the result expression is evaluated and is returned as the value of the match expression. Here, the ‑> operator separates a pattern from the result that a match returns.

Pattern matching can also be used as a control construct—for example, by using a pattern that performs a dynamic type test:

let getType (x : obj) =

match x with

| :? string           -> "x is a string"

| :? int              -> "x is an int"

| :? System.Exception -> "x is an exception"

The :? operator returns true if the value matches the specified type, so if x is a string, getType returns “x is a string”.

Function values can also be combined with the pipeline operator, |>. For example, given these functions:

let square x         = x * x

let toStr (x : int)  = x.ToString()

let reverse (x : string) = new System.String(Array.rev (x.ToCharArray()))

We can use the functions as values in a pipeline:

> let result = 32 |> square |> toStr |> reverse;;

val it : string = "4201"

Pipelining demonstrates one way in which F# supports compositionality, a key concept in functional programming. The pipeline operator simplifies the process of writing compositional code where the result of one function is passed into the next.

### 1.1.5     Imperative Programming

The next line of the sample program prints text in the console window.

printfn "N^2 = %A" squares

The F# library function printf is a simple and type-safe way to print text in the console window. Consider this example, which prints an integer, a floating-point number, and a string:

> printfn "%d * %f = %s" 5 0.75 ((5.0 * 0.75).ToString());;

5 * 0.750000 = 3.75

val it : unit = ()

The format specifiers %d, %f, and %s are placeholders for integers, floats, and strings. The %A format can be used to print arbitrary data types (including lists).

The printfn function is an example of imperative programming, which means calling functions for their side effects. Other commonly used imperative programming techniques include arrays and dictionaries (also called hash tables). F# programs typically use a mixture of functional and imperative techniques.

### 1.1.6     .NET Interoperability and CLI Fidelity

The last line in the sample program calls the common language infrastructure (CLI) function System.Console.ReadKey to pause the program before the console window closes.

Because F# is built on top of CLI implementations, you can call any CLI library from F#. Furthermore, other CLI languages can easily use any F# components.

### 1.1.7     Parallel and Asynchronous Programming

F# is both a parallel and a reactive language. During execution, F# programs can have multiple parallel active evaluations and multiple pending reactions, such as callbacks and agents that wait to react to events and messages.

One way to write parallel and reactive F# programs is to use F# async expressions. For example, the code below is similar to the original program in §1.1 except that it computes the Fibonacci function (using a technique that will take some time) and schedules the computation of the numbers in parallel:

let rec fib x = if x <= 2 then 1 else fib(x-1) + fib(x-2)

let fibs =

Async.Parallel [ for i in 0..40 -> async { return fib(i) } ]

|> Async.RunSynchronously

printfn "N^2 = %A" fibs

The preceding code sample shows multiple, parallel, CPU-bound computations.

F# is also a reactive language. The following example requests multiple web pages in parallel, reacts to the responses for each request, and finally returns the collected results.

open System

open System.IO

open System.Net

let http url =

async { let req =  WebRequest.Create(Uri url)

use! resp = req.AsyncGetResponse()

use stream = resp.GetResponseStream()

return contents }

"http://www.yahoo.com"; "http://www.search.com"]

let htmlOfSites =

Async.Parallel [for site in sites -> http site ]

|> Async.RunSynchronously

By using asynchronous workflows together with other CLI libraries, F# programs can implement parallel tasks, parallel I/O operations, and message-receiving agents.

### 1.1.8     Strong Typing for Floating-Point Code

F# applies type checking and type inference to floating-point-intensive domains through units of measure inference and checking. This feature allows you to type-check programs that manipulate floating-point numbers that represent physical and abstract quantities in a stronger way than other typed languages, without losing any performance in your compiled code. You can think of this feature as providing a type system for floating-point code.

Consider the following example:

[<Measure>] type kg

[<Measure>] type m

[<Measure>] type s

let gravityOnEarth = 9.81<m/s^2>

let heightOfTowerOfPisa = 55.86<m>

let speedOfImpact = sqrt(2.0 * gravityOnEarth * heightOfTowerOfPisa)

The Measure attribute tells F# that kg, s, and m are not really types in the usual sense of the word, but are used to build units of measure. Here speedOfImpact is inferred to have type float<m/s>.

### 1.1.9     Object-Oriented Programming and Code Organization

The sample program shown at the start of this chapter is a script. Although scripts are excellent for rapid prototyping, they are not suitable for larger software components. F# supports the transition from scripting to structured code through several techniques.

The most important of these is object-oriented programming through the use of class type definitions, interface type definitions, and object expressions. Object-oriented programming is a primary application programming interface (API) design technique for controlling the complexity of large software projects. For example, here is a class definition for an encoder/decoder object.

open System

/// Build an encoder/decoder object that maps characters to an

/// encoding and back. The encoding is specified by a sequence

/// of character pairs, for example, [('a','Z'); ('Z','a')]

type CharMapEncoder(symbols: seq<char*char>) =

let swap (x, y) = (y, x)

/// An immutable tree map for the encoding

let fwd  = symbols |> Map.ofSeq

/// An immutable tree map for the decoding

let bwd  = symbols |> Seq.map swap |> Map.ofSeq

let encode (s:string) =

String [| for c in s -> if fwd.ContainsKey(c) then fwd.[c] else c |]

let decode (s:string) =

String [| for c in s -> if bwd.ContainsKey(c) then bwd.[c] else c |]

/// Encode the input string

member x.Encode(s) = encode s

/// Decode the given string

member x.Decode(s) = decode s

You can instantiate an object of this type as follows:

let rot13 (c:char) =

char(int 'a' + ((int c - int 'a' + 13) % 26))

let encoder =

CharMapEncoder( [for c in 'a'..'z' -> (c, rot13 c)])

And use the object as follows:

> "F# is fun!" |> encoder.Encode ;;

val it : string = "F# vf sha!"

> "F# is fun!" |> encoder.Encode |> encoder.Decode ;;

val it : String = "F# is fun!"

open System

type IEncoding =

abstract Encode : string -> string

abstract Decode : string -> string

In this example, IEncoding is an interface type that includes both Encode and Decode object types.

Both object expressions and type definitions can implement interface types. For example, here is an object expression that implements the IEncoding interface type:

let nullEncoder =

member x.Encode(s) = s

member x.Decode(s) = s }

Modules are a simple way to encapsulate code during rapid prototyping when you do not want to spend the time to design a strict object-oriented type hierarchy. In the following example, we place a portion of our original script in a module.

module ApplicationLogic =

let numbers n = [1 .. n]

let square x = x * x

let squares n = numbers n |> List.map square

printfn "Squares up to 5 = %A" (ApplicationLogic.squares 5)

printfn "Squares up to 10 = %A" (ApplicationLogic.squares 10)

Modules are also used in the F# library design to associate extra functionality with types. For example, List.map is a function in a module.

Other mechanisms aimed at supporting software engineering include signatures, which can be used to give explicit types to components, and namespaces, which serve as a way of organizing the name hierarchies for larger APIs.

### 1.1.10Information-rich Programming

F# Information-rich programming addresses the trend toward greater availability of data, services, and information. The key to information-rich programming is to eliminate barriers to working with diverse information sources that are available on the Internet and in modern enterprise environments. Type providers and query expressions are a significant part of F# 3.0 support for information-rich programming.

The F# Type Provider mechanism allows you to seamlessly incorporate, in a strongly typed manner, data and services from external sources. A type provider presents your program with new types and methods that are typically based on the schemas of external information sources. For example, an F# type provider for Structured Query Language (SQL) supplies types and methods that allow programmers to work directly with the tables of any SQL database:

// Add References to FSharp.Data.TypeProviders, System.Data, and System.Data.Linq

type schema = SqlDataConnection<"Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI;">

let db = schema.GetDataContext()

The type provider connects to the database automatically and uses this for IntelliSense and type information.

Query expressions in F# 3.0 add the established power of query-based programming against SQL, Open Data Protocol (OData), and other structured or relational data sources. Query expressions provide support for Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) in F#, and several query operators enable you to construct more complex queries. For example, we can create a query to return the number of customers in the data source:

let countOfCustomers = query { for customer in db.Customers do

select customer

count}

Now it is easier than ever to access many important data sources—including enterprise, web, and cloud—by using a set of built-in type providers for SQL databases and web data protocols. Where necessary, you can create your own custom type providers or reference type providers that others have created. For example, assume your organization has a data service that provides a large and growing number of named data sets, each with its own stable data schema. You may choose to create a type provider that reads the schemas and presents the latest available data sets to the programmer in a strongly typed way.

## 1.2     Notational Conventions in This Specification

This specification describes the F# language by using a mixture of informal and semiformal techniques. All examples in this specification use lightweight syntax, unless otherwise specified.

Regular expressions are given in the usual notation, as shown in the table:

 Notation Meaning regexp+ One or more occurrences regexp* Zero or more occurrences regexp? Zero or one occurrences [ char - char ] Range of ASCII characters [ ^ char - char ] Any characters except those in the range

Unicode character classes are referred to by their abbreviation—for example, \Lu refers to any uppercase letter. The following characters are referred to using the indicated notation:

 Character Name Notation \b backspace ASCII/UTF-8/UTF-16/UTF-32 code 08 \n newline ASCII/UTF-8/UTF-16/UTF-32 code 10 \r return ASCII/UTF-8/UTF-16/UTF-32 code 13 \t tab ASCII/UTF-8/UTF-16/UTF-32 code 09

Strings of characters that are clearly not a regular expression are written verbatim. Therefore, the following string

abstract

matches precisely the characters abstract.

Where appropriate, apostrophes and quotation marks enclose symbols that are used in the specification of the grammar itself, such as '<' and '|'. For example, the following regular expression matches (+) or (-):

'(' (+|-) ')'

This regular expression matches precisely the characters #if:

"#if"

Regular expressions are typically used to specify tokens.

token token-nameregexp

In the grammar rules, the notation element-nameopt indicates an optional element. The notation ... indicates repetition of the preceding non-terminal construct and the separator token. For example, expr ',' ... ',' expr means a sequence of one or more expr elements separated by commas.

# 2.          Program Structure

The inputs to the F# compiler or the F# Interactive dynamic compiler consist of:

·         Source code files, with extensions .fs, .fsi, .fsx, or .fsscript.

·         Files with extension .fs must conform to grammar element implementation-file in §12.1.

·         Files with extension .fsi must conform to grammar element signature-file in §12.2.

·         Files with extension .fsx or .fsscript must conform to grammar element script-file in §12.3.

·         Script fragments (for F# Interactive). These must conform to grammar element script-fragment. Script fragments can be separated by ;; tokens.

·         Assembly references that are specified by command line arguments or interactive directives.

·         Compilation parameters that are specified by command line arguments or interactive directives.

·         Compiler directives such as #time.

The COMPILED compilation symbol is defined for input that the F# compiler has processed. The INTERACTIVE  compilation symbol is defined for input that F# Interactive has processed.

Processing the source code portions of these inputs consists of the following steps:

1.     Decoding. Each file and source code fragment is decoded into a stream of Unicode characters, as described in the C# specification, sections 2.3 and 2.4. The command-line options may specify a code page for this process.

2.     Tokenization. The stream of Unicode characters is broken into a token stream by the lexical analysis described in §3.

3.     Lexical Filtering. The token stream is filtered by a state machine that implements the rules described in §15. Those rules describe how additional (artificial) tokens are inserted into the token stream and how some existing tokens are replaced with others to create an augmented token stream.

4.     Parsing. The augmented token stream is parsed according to the grammar specification in this document.

5.     Importing. The imported assembly references are resolved to F# or CLI assembly specifications, which are then imported. From the F# perspective, this results in the pre-definition of numerous namespace declaration groups (§12.1) and types. The namespace declaration groups are then combined to form an initial name resolution environment (§14.1).

6.     Checking. The results of parsing are checked one by one. Checking involves such procedures as Name Resolution (§14.1), Constraint Solving (§14.5), and Generalization (§14.6.7), as well as the application of other rules described in this specification.

Type inference uses variables to represent unknowns in the type inference problem. The various checking processes maintain tables of context information including a name resolution environment and a set of current inference constraints. After the processing of a file or program fragment is complete, all such variables have been either generalized or resolved and the type inference environment is discarded.

7.     Elaboration. One result of checking is an elaborated program fragment that contains elaborated declarations, expressions, and types. For most constructs, such as constants, control flow, and data expressions, the elaborated form is simple. Elaborated forms are used for evaluation, CLI reflection, and the F# expression trees that are returned by quoted expressions (§6.8).

8.     Execution. Elaborated program fragments that are successfully checked are added to a collection of available program fragments. Each fragment has a static initializer. Static initializers are executed as described in (§12.5).

# 3.          Lexical Analysis

Lexical analysis converts an input stream of Unicode characters into a stream of tokens by iteratively processing the stream. If more than one token can match a sequence of characters in the source file, lexical processing always forms the longest possible lexical element. Some tokens, such as block-comment-start, are discarded after processing as described later in this section.

## 3.1     Whitespace

Whitespace consists of spaces and newline characters.

regexp whitespace = ' '+

regexp newline = '\n' | '\r' '\n'

token whitespace-or-newline = whitespace | newline

Whitespace tokens whitespace-or-newline are discarded from the returned token stream.

Block comments are delimited by (* and *) and may be nested. Single-line comments begin with two backslashes (//) and extend to the end of the line.

token block-comment-start = "(*"

token block-comment-end = "*)"

token end-of-line-comment = "//" [^'\n' '\r']*

When the input stream matches a block-comment-start token, the subsequent text is tokenized recursively against the tokens that are described in §3 until a block-comment-end token is found. The intermediate tokens are discarded.

For example, comments can be nested, and strings that are embedded within comments are tokenized by the rules for string, verbatim-string, and triple-quoted string. In particular, strings that are embedded in comments are tokenized in their entirety, without considering closing *) marks. As a result of this rule, the following is a valid comment:

(* Here's a code snippet: let s = "*)" *)

However, the following construct, which was valid in  F# 2.0, now produces a syntax error because a closing comment token *) followed by a triple-quoted mark is parsed as part of a string:

(* """ *)

For the purposes of this specification, comment tokens are discarded from the returned lexical stream. In practice, XML documentation tokens are end-of-line-comments that begin with ///. The delimiters are retained and are associated with the remaining elements to generate XML documentation.

## 3.3     Conditional Compilation

The lexical preprocessing directives #if ident/#else/#endif  delimit conditional compilation sections. The following describes the grammar for such sections:

token if-directive = "#if" whitespace ident-text

token else-directive = "#else"

token endif-directive = "#endif"

A preprocessing directive always occupies a separate line of source code and always begins with a # character followed immediately by a preprocessing directive name, with no intervening whitespace. However, whitespace can appear before the # character. A source line that contains the #if, #else, or #endif directive can end with whitespace and a single-line comment. Multiple-line comments are not permitted on source lines that contain preprocessing directives.

If an if-directive token is matched during tokenization, text is recursively tokenized until a corresponding else-directive or endif-directive. If the compilation environment defines the associated ident-text (for example, by using the command line option –define), the token stream includes the tokens between the if-directive  and the corresponding else-directive or endif-directive. Otherwise, the tokens are discarded. The converse applies to the text between any corresponding else-directive and the endif-directive.

·         In skipped text, #if ident/#else/#endif sections can be nested.

·         Strings and comments are not treated as special

## 3.4     Identifiers and Keywords

Identifiers follow the specification in this section.

regexp digit-char = [0-9]

regexp letter-char = '\Lu' | '\Ll' | '\Lt' | '\Lm' | '\Lo' | '\Nl'

regexp connecting-char = '\Pc'

regexp combining-char = '\Mn' | '\Mc'

regexp formatting-char = '\Cf'

regexp ident-start-char =

| letter-char

| _

regexp ident-char =

| letter-char

| digit-char

| connecting-char

| combining-char

| formatting-char

| '

| _

regexp ident-text = ident-start-char ident-char*

token ident =

| ident-text         For example, myName1

|  ( [^'' '\n' '\r' '\t'] | '' [^ '' '\n' '\r' '\t'] )+ 

For example, value.with odd#name

Any sequence of characters that is enclosed in double-backtick marks ( ), excluding newlines, tabs, and double-backtick pairs themselves, is treated as an identifier. Note that when an identifier is used for the name of a types, union type case, module, or namespace, the following characters are not allowed even inside double-backtick marks:

‘.', '+', '$', '&', '[', ']', '/', '\\', '*', '\"', '' All input files are currently assumed to be encoded as UTF-8. See the C# specification for a list of the Unicode characters that are accepted for the Unicode character classes \Lu, \Li, \Lt, \Lm, \Lo, \Nl, \Pc, \Mn, \Mc, and \Cf. The following identifiers are treated as keywords of the F# language: token ident-keyword = abstract and as assert base begin class default delegate do done downcast downto elif else end exception extern false finally for fun function global if in inherit inline interface internal lazy let match member module mutable namespace new null of open or override private public rec return sig static struct then to true try type upcast use val void when while with yield The following identifiers are reserved for future use: token reserved-ident-keyword = atomic break checked component const constraint constructor continue eager fixed fori functor include measure method mixin object parallel params process protected pure recursive sealed tailcall trait virtual volatile A future revision of the F# language may promote any of these identifiers to be full keywords. The following token forms are reserved, except when they are part of a symbolic keyword (§3.6). token reserved-ident-formats = | ident-text ( '!' | '#') In the remainder of this specification, we refer to the token that is generated for a keyword simply by using the text of the keyword itself. ## 3.5 Strings and Characters String literals may be specified for two types: · Unicode strings, type string = System.String · Unsigned byte arrays, type byte[] = bytearray Literals may also be specified by using C#-like verbatim forms that interpret \ as a literal character rather than an escape sequence. In a UTF-8-encoded file, you can directly embed the following in a string in the same way as in C#: · Unicode characters, such as “\u0041bc · Identifiers, as described in the previous section, such as “abc” · Trigraph specifications of Unicode characters, such as “\067” which represents “C” regexp escape-char = '\' ["\'ntbrafv] regexp non-escape-chars = '\' [^"\'ntbrafv] regexp simple-char-char = | (any char except '\n' '\t' '\r' '\b' '\a' '\f' '\v' ' \ ") regexp unicodegraph-short = '\' 'u' hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit regexp unicodegraph-long = '\' 'U' hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit hexdigit regexp trigraph = '\' digit-char digit-char digit-char regexp char-char = | simple-char-char | escape-char | trigraph | unicodegraph-short regexp string-char = | simple-string-char | escape-char | non-escape-chars | trigraph | unicodegraph-short | unicodegraph-long | newline regexp string-elem = | string-char | '\' newline whitespace* string-elem token char = ' char-char ' token string = " string-char* " regexp verbatim-string-char = | simple-string-char | non-escape-chars | newline | \ | "" token verbatim-string = @" verbatim-string-char* " token bytechar = ' simple-or-escape-char 'B token bytearray = " string-char* "B token verbatim-bytearray = @" verbatim-string-char* "B token simple-or-escape-char = escape-char | simple-char token simple-char = any char except newline,return,tab,backspace,',\," token triple-quoted-string = """ simple-or-escape-char* """ To translate a string token to a string value, the F# parser concatenates all the Unicode characters for the string-char elements within the string. Strings may include \n as a newline character. However, if a line ends with \, the newline character and any leading whitespace elements on the subsequent line are ignored. Thus, the following gives s the value "abcdef": let s = "abc\ def" Without the backslash, the resulting string includes the newline and whitespace characters. For example: let s = "abc def" In this case, s has the value "abc\010 def" where \010 is the embedded control character for \n, which has Unicode UTF-16 value 10. Verbatim strings may be specified by using the @ symbol preceding the string as in C#. For example, the following assigns the value "abc\def" to s. let s = @"abc\def" String-like and character-like literals can also be specified for unsigned byte arrays (type byte[]). These tokens cannot contain Unicode characters that have surrogate-pair UTF-16 encodings or UTF-16 encodings greater than 127. A triple-quoted string is specified by using three quotation marks (""") to ensure that a string that includes one or more escaped strings is interpreted verbatim. For example, a triple-quoted string can be used to embed XML blobs: let catalog = """ <?xml version="1.0"?> <catalog> <book id="book"> <author>Author</author> <title>F#</title> <genre>Computer</genre> <price>44.95</price> <publish_date>2012-10-01</publish_date> <description>An in-depth look at creating applications in F#</description> </book> </catalog> """ ## 3.6 Symbolic Keywords The following symbolic or partially symbolic character sequences are treated as keywords: token symbolic-keyword = let! use! do! yield! return! | -> <- . : ( ) [ ] [< >] [| |] { } ' # :?> :? :> .. :: := ;; ; = _ ? ?? (*) <@ @> <@@ @@> The following symbols are reserved for future use: token reserved-symbolic-sequence = ~ ` ## 3.7 Symbolic Operators User-defined and library-defined symbolic operators are sequences of characters as shown below, except where the sequence of characters is a symbolic keyword (§3.6). regexp first-op-char = !%&*+-./<=>@^|~ regexp op-char = first-op-char | ? token quote-op-left = | <@ <@@ token quote-op-right = | @> @@> token symbolic-op = | ? | ?<- | first-op-char op-char* | quote-op-left | quote-op-right For example, &&& and ||| are valid symbolic operators. Only the operators ? and ?<- may start with ?. The quote-op-left and quote-op-right operators are used in quoted expressions (§6.8). For details about the associativity and precedence of symbolic operators in expression forms, see §4.4. ## 3.8 Numeric Literals The lexical specification of numeric literals is as follows: regexp digit = [0-9] regexp hexdigit = digit | [A-F] | [a-f] regexp octaldigit = [0-7] regexp bitdigit = [0-1] regexp int = | digit+ For example, 34 regexp xint = | 0 (x|X) hexdigit+ For example, 0x22 | 0 (o|O) octaldigit+ For example, 0o42 | 0 (b|B) bitdigit+ For example, 0b10010 token sbyte = (int|xint) 'y' For example, 34y token byte = (int|xint) 'uy' For example, 34uy token int16 = (int|xint) 's' For example, 34s token uint16 = (int|xint) 'us' For example, 34us token int32 = (int|xint) 'l' For example, 34l token uint32 = (int|xint) 'ul' For example, 34ul | (int|xint) 'u' For example, 34u token nativeint = (int|xint) 'n' For example, 34n token unativeint = (int|xint) 'un' For example, 34un token int64 = (int|xint) 'L' For example, 34L token uint64 = (int|xint) 'UL' For example, 34UL | (int|xint) 'uL' For example, 34uL token ieee32 = | float [Ff] For example, 3.0F or 3.0f | xint 'lf' For example, 0x00000000lf token ieee64 = | float For example, 3.0 | xint 'LF' For example, 0x0000000000000000LF token bignum = int ('Q' | 'R' | 'Z' | 'I' | 'N' | 'G') For example, 34742626263193832612536171N token decimal = (float|int) [Mm] token float = digit+ . digit digit+ (. digit* )? (e|E) (+|-)? digit+ ### 3.8.1 Post-filtering of Adjacent Prefix Tokens Negative integers are specified using the token; for example, -3. The token steam is post-filtered according to the following rules: · If the token stream contains the adjacent tokens token: If token is a constant numeric literal, the pair of tokens is merged. For example, adjacent tokens - and 3 becomes the single token “-3”. Otherwise, the tokens remain separate. However the “-” token is marked as an ADJACENT_PREFIX_OP token. This rule does not apply to the sequence token1 - token2, if all three tokens are adjacent and token1 is a terminating token from expression forms that have lower precedence than the grammar production expr = MINUS expr. For example, the and b tokens in the following sequence are not merged if all three tokens are adjacent: a-b · Otherwise, the usual grammar rules apply to the uses of and +, with an addition for ADJACENT_PREFIX_OP: expr = expr MINUS expr | MINUS expr | ADJACENT_PREFIX_OP expr ### 3.8.2 Post-filtering of Integers Followed by Adjacent “..” Tokens of the form token intdotdot = int.. such as 34.. are post-filtered to two tokens: one int and one symbolic-keyword, ..”. This rule allows “..” to immediately follow an integer. This construction is used in expressions of the form [for x in 1..2 -> x + x ]. Without this rule, the longest-match rule would consider this sequence to be a floating-point number followed by a “.”. ### 3.8.3 Reserved Numeric Literal Forms The following token forms are reserved for future numeric literal formats: token reserved-literal-formats = ## 3.9 Line Directives Line directives adjust the source code filenames and line numbers that are reported in error messages, recorded in debugging symbols, and propagated to quoted expressions. F# supports the following line directives: token line-directive = # int # int string # int verbatim-string #line int #line int string #line int verbatim-string A line directive applies to the line that immediately follows the directive. If no line directive is present, the first line of a file is numbered 1. ## 3.10 Hidden Tokens Some hidden tokens are inserted by lexical filtering (§15) or are used to replace existing tokens. See §15 for a full specification and for the augmented grammar rules that take these into account. ## 3.11 Identifier Replacements The following table lists identifiers that are automatically replaced by expressions.  Identifier Replacement __SOURCE_DIRECTORY__ A literal verbatim string that specifies the name of the directory that contains the current file. For example: C:\source The name of the current file is derived from the most recent line directive in the file. If no line directive has appeared, the name is derived from the name that was specificed to the command-line compiler in combination with System.IO.Path.GetFullPath. In F# Interactive, the name stdin is used. When F# Interactive is used from tools such as Visual Studio, a line directive is implicitly added before the interactive execution of each script fragment. __SOURCE_FILE__ A literal verbatim string that contains the name of the current file. For example: file.fs __LINE__ A literal string that specifies the line number in the source file, after taking into account adjustments from line directives. # 4. Basic Grammar Elements This section defines grammar elements that are used repeatedly in later sections. ## 4.1 Operator Names Several places in the grammar refer to an ident-or-op rather than an ident: ident-or-op := | ident | ( op-name ) | (*) op-name := | symbolic-op | range-op-name | active-pattern-op-name range-op-name := | .. | .. .. active-pattern-op-name := | | ident | ... | ident | | | ident | ... | ident | _ | In operator definitions, the operator name is placed in parentheses. For example: let (+++) x y = (x, y) This example defines the binary operator +++. The text (+++) is an ident-or-op that acts as an identifier with associated text +++. Likewise, for active pattern definitions (§7), the active pattern case names are placed in parentheses, as in the following example: let (|A|B|C|) x = if x < 0 then A elif x = 0 then B else C Because an ident-or-op acts as an identifier, such names can be used in expressions. For example: List.map ((+) 1) [ 1; 2; 3 ] The three character token (*)defines the * operator: let (*) x y = (x + y) To define other operators that begin with *, whitespace must follow the opening parenthesis; otherwise (* is interpreted as the start of a comment: let ( *+* ) x y = (x + y) Symbolic operators and some symbolic keywords have a compiled name that is visible in the compiled form of F# programs. The compiled names are shown below. [] op_Nil :: op_ColonColon + op_Addition - op_Subtraction * op_Multiply / op_Division ** op_Exponentiation @ op_Append ^ op_Concatenate % op_Modulus &&& op_BitwiseAnd ||| op_BitwiseOr ^^^ op_ExclusiveOr <<< op_LeftShift ~~~ op_LogicalNot >>> op_RightShift ~+ op_UnaryPlus ~- op_UnaryNegation = op_Equality <> op_Inequality <= op_LessThanOrEqual >= op_GreaterThanOrEqual < op_LessThan > op_GreaterThan ? op_Dynamic ?<- op_DynamicAssignment |> op_PipeRight ||> op_PipeRight2 |||> op_PipeRight3 <| op_PipeLeft <|| op_PipeLeft2 <||| op_PipeLeft3 ! op_Dereference >> op_ComposeRight << op_ComposeLeft <@ @> op_Quotation <@@ @@> op_QuotationUntyped ~% op_Splice ~%% op_SpliceUntyped ~& op_AddressOf ~&& op_IntegerAddressOf || op_BooleanOr && op_BooleanAnd += op_AdditionAssignment -= op_SubtractionAssignment *= op_MultiplyAssignment /= op_DivisionAssignment .. op_Range .. .. op_RangeStep Compiled names for other symbolic operators are op_N1...Nn where N1 to Nn are the names for the characters as shown in the table below. For example, the symbolic identifier <* has the compiled name op_LessMultiply: > Greater + Plus - Minus * Multiply = Equals ~ Twiddle % Percent . Dot & Amp | Bar @ At # Hash ^ Hat ! Bang ? Qmark / Divide . Dot : Colon ( LParen , Comma ) RParen [ LBrack ] RBrack ## 4.2 Long Identifiers Long identifiers long-ident are sequences of identifiers that are separated by ‘.’ and optional whitespace. Long identifiers long-ident-or-op are long identifiers that may terminate with an operator name. long-ident := ident '.' ... '.' ident long-ident-or-op := | long-ident '.' ident-or-op | ident-or-op ## 4.3 Constants The constants in the following table may be used in patterns and expressions. The individual lexical formats for the different constants are defined in §3. const := | sbyte | int16 | int32 | int64 -- 8, 16, 32 and 64-bit signed integers | byte | uint16 | uint32 | int -- 32-bit signed integer | uint64 -- 8, 16, 32 and 64-bit unsigned integers | ieee32 -- 32-bit number of type "float32" | ieee64 -- 64-bit number of type "float" | bignum -- User or library-defined integral literal type | char -- Unicode character of type "char" | string -- String of type "string" (System.String) | verbatim-string -- String of type "string" (System.String) | triple-quoted-string -- String of type "string" (System.String) | bytestring -- String of type "byte[]" | verbatim-bytearray -- String of type "byte[]" | bytechar -- Char of type "byte" | false | true -- Boolean constant of type "bool" | () -- unit constant of type "unit" ## 4.4 Operators and Precedence ### 4.4.1 Categorization of Symbolic Operators The following symbolic-op tokens can be used to form prefix and infix expressions. The marker OP represents all symbolic-op tokens that begin with the indicated prefix, except for tokens that appear elsewhere in the table. infix-or-prefix-op := +-, +., -., %, &, && prefix-op := infix-or-prefix-op ~ ~~ ~~~ (and any repetitions of ~) !OP (except !=) infix-op := infix-or-prefix-op -OP +OP || <OP >OP = |OP &OP ^OP *OP /OP %OP != (or any of these preceded by one or more ‘.’) := ::$

or

?

The operators +-, +., -., %, %%, &, && can be used as both prefix and infix operators. When these operators are used as prefix operators, the tilde character is prepended internally to generate the operator name so that the parser can distinguish such usage from an infix use of the operator. For example, -x is parsed as an application of the operator ~- to the identifier x. This generated name is also used in definitions for these prefix operators. Consequently, the definitions of the following prefix operators include the ~ character:

// To completely redefine the prefix + operator:

let (~+) x = x

// To completely redefine the infix + operator to be addition modulo-7

let (+) a b = (a + b) % 7

// To define the operator on a type:

type C(n:int) =

let n = n % 7

member x.N = n

static member (~+) (x:C) = x

static member (~-) (x:C) = C(-n)

static member (+) (x1:C,x2:C) = C(x1.N+x2.N)

static member (-) (x1:C,x2:C) = C(x1.N-x2.N)

The:: operator is special. It represents the union case for the addition of an element to the head of an immutable linked list, and cannot be redefined, although it may be used to form infix expressions. It always accepts arguments in tupled form—as do all union cases—rather than in curried form.

### 4.4.2     Precedence of Symbolic Operators and Pattern/Expression Constructs

Rules of precedence control the order of evaluation for ambiguous expression and pattern constructs. Higher precedence items are evaluated before lower precedence items.

The following table shows the order of precedence, from highest to lowest, and indicates whether the operator or expression is associated with the token to its left or right. The OP marker represents the symbolic-op tokens that begin with the specified prefix, except those listed elsewhere in the table. For example, +OP represents any token that begins with a plus sign, unless the token appears elsewhere in the table.

 Operator or expression Associativity Comments f Left High-precedence type application; see §15.3 f(x) Left High-precedence application; see §15.2 . Left prefix-op Left Applies to prefix uses of these symbols "| rule" Right Pattern matching rules "f x" "lazy x" "assert x" Left **OP Right *OP /OP %OP Left -OP +OP Left Applies to infix uses of these symbols :? Not associative :: Right ^OP Right !=OP OP = |OP &OP $Left :> :?> Right & && Left or || Left , Not associative := Right -> Right if Not associative function, fun, match, try Not associative let Not associative ; Right | Left when Right as Right If ambiguous grammar rules (such as the rules from §6) involve tokens in the table, a construct that appears earlier in the table has higher precedence than a construct that appears later in the table. The associativity indicates whether the operator or construct applies to the item to the left or the right of the operator. For example, consider the following token stream: a + b * c In this expression, the expr infix-op expr rule for b * c takes precedence over the expr infix-op expr rule for a + b, because the * operator has higher precedence than the + operator. Thus, this expression can be pictured as follows: a + b * c rather than a + b * c Likewise, given the tokens a * b * c the left associativity of * means we can picture the resolution of the ambiguity as: a * b * c In the preceding table, leading . characters are ignored when determining precedence for infix operators. For example, .* has the same precedence as *. This rule ensures that operators such as .*, which is frequently used for pointwise-operation on matrices, have the expected precedence. The table entries marked as “High-precedence application” and “High-precedence type application” are the result of the augmentation of the lexical token stream, as described in §15.2 and §15.3. # 5. Types and Type Constraints The notion of type is central to both the static checking of F# programs and to dynamic type tests and reflection at runtime. The word is used with four distinct but related meanings: · Type definitions, such as the actual CLI or F# definitions of System.String or Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Map<_,_>. · Syntactic types, such as the text option<_> that might occur in a program text. Syntactic types are converted to static types during the process of type checking and inference. · Static types, which result from type checking and inference, either by the translation of syntactic types that appear in the source text, or by the application of constraints that are related to particular language constructs. For example, option<int> is the fully processed static type that is inferred for an expression Some(1+1). Static types may contain type variables as described later in this section. · Runtime types, which are objects of type System.Type and represent some or all of the information that type definitions and static types convey at runtime. The obj.GetType() method, which is available on all F# values, provides access to the runtime type of an object. An object’s runtime type is related to the static type of the identifiers and expressions that correspond to the object. Runtime types may be tested by built-in language operators such as :? and :?>, the expression form downcast expr, and pattern matching type tests. Runtime types of objects do not contain type variables. Runtime types that System.Reflection reports may contain type variables that are represented by System.Type values. The following describes the syntactic forms of types as they appear in programs: type := ( type ) type -> type -- function type type * ... * type -- tuple type typar -- variable type long-ident -- named type, such as int long-ident<types> -- named type, such as list<int> long-ident< > -- named type, such as IEnumerable< > type long-ident -- named type, such as int list type[ , ... , ] -- array type type typar-defns -- type with constraints typar :> type -- variable type with subtype constraint #type -- anonymous type with subtype constraint types := type, ..., type atomic-type := type : one of #type typar ( type ) long-ident long-ident<types> typar := _ -- anonymous variable type 'ident -- type variable ^ident -- static head-type type variable constraint := typar :> type -- coercion constraint typar : null -- nullness constraint static-typars : (member-sig ) -- member "trait" constraint typar : (new : unit -> 'T) -- CLI default constructor constraint typar : struct -- CLI non-Nullable struct typar : not struct -- CLI reference type typar : enum<type> -- enum decomposition constraint typar : unmanaged -- unmanaged constraint typar : delegate<type, type> -- delegate decomposition constraint typar : equality typar : comparison typar-defn := attributesopt typar typar-defns := < typar-defn, ..., typar-defn typar-constraintsopt > typar-constraints := when constraint and ... and constraint static-typars := ^ident (^ident or ... or ^ident) member-sig := <see Section 10> In a type instantiation, the type name and the opening angle bracket must be syntactically adjacent with no intervening whitespace, as determined by lexical filtering (§15). Specifically: array<int> and not array < int > ## 5.1 Checking Syntactic Types Syntactic types are checked and converted to static types as they are encountered. Static types are a specification device used to describe · The process of type checking and inference. · The connection between syntactic types and the execution of F# programs. Every expression in an F# program is given a unique inferred static type, possibly involving one or more explicit or implicit generic parameters. For the remainder of this specification we use the same syntax to represent syntactic types and static types. For example int32 * int32 is used to represent the syntactic type that appears in source code and the static type that is used during checking and type inference. The conversion from syntactic types to static types happens in the context of a name resolution environment (§14.1), a floating type variable environment, which is a mapping from names to type variables, and a type inference environment (§14.5). The phrase “fresh type means a static type that is formed from a fresh type inference variable. Type inference variables are either solved or generalized by type inference (§14.5). During conversion and throughout the checking of types, expressions, declarations, and entire files, a set of current inference constraints is maintained. That is, each static type is processed under input constraints Χ, and results in output constraints Χ’. Type inference variables and constraints are progressively simplified and eliminated based on these equations through constraint solving 14.5). ### 5.1.1 Named Types Named types have several forms, as listed in the following table.  Form Description long-ident Named type with one or more suffixed type arguments. long-ident Named type with no type arguments type long-ident Named type with one type argument; processed the same as long-ident ty1 -> ty2 A function type, where: § ty1 is the domain of the function values associated with the type § ty2 is the range. In compiled code it is represented by the named type Microsoft.FSharp.Core.FastFunc. Named types are converted to static types as follows: · Name Resolution for Types14.1) resolves long-ident to a type definition with formal generic parameters <typar1,…, typarn> and formal constraints C. The number of type arguments n is used during the name resolution process to distinguish between similarly named types that take different numbers of type arguments. · Fresh type inference variables <ty'1,…,ty'n> are generated for each formal type parameter. The formal constraints C are added to the current inference constraints for the new type inference variables; and constraints tyi = ty'i are added to the current inference constraints. ### 5.1.2 Variable Types A type of the form 'ident is a variable type. For example, the following are all variable types: 'a 'T 'Key During checking, Name Resolution (§14.1) is applied to the identifier. · If name resolution succeeds, the result is a variable type that refers to an existing declared type parameter. · If name resolution fails, the current floating type variable environment is consulted, although only in the context of a syntactic type that is embedded in an expression or pattern. If the type variable name is assigned a type in that environment, F# uses that mapping. Otherwise, a fresh type inference variable is created (see §14.5) and added to both the type inference environment and the floating type variable environment. A type of the form _ is an anonymous variable type. A fresh type inference variable is created and added to the type inference environment (see §14.5) for such a type. A type of the form ^ident is a statically resolved type variable. A fresh type inference variable is created and added to the type inference environment (see §14.5). This type variable is tagged with an attribute that indicates that it can be generalized only at inline definitions (see §14.6.7). The same restriction on generalization applies to any type variables that are contained in any type that is equated with the ^ident type in a type inference equation. Note: this specification generally uses uppercase identifiers such as 'T or 'Key for user-declared generic type parameters, and uses lowercase identifiers such as 'a or 'b for compiler-inferred generic parameters. ### 5.1.3 Tuple Types A tuple type has the following form: ty1 * ... * tyn The elaborated form of a tuple type is shorthand for a use of the family of F# library types System.Tuple<_,...,_>. See §6.3.2 for the details of this encoding. When considered as static types, tuple types are distinct from their encoded form. However, the encoded form of tuple types is visible in the F# type system through runtime types. For example, typeof<int * int> is equivalent to typeof<System.Tuple<int,int>>. ### 5.1.4 Array Types Array types have the following forms: ty[] ty[ , ... , ] A type of the form ty[] is a single-dimensional array type, and a type of the form ty[ , ... , ] is a multidimensional array type. For example, int[,,] is an array of integers of rank 3. Except where specified otherwise in this document, these array types are treated as named types, as if they are an instantiation of a fictitious type definition System.Arrayn<ty> where n corresponds to the rank of the array type. Note: The type int[][,] in F# is the same as the type int[,][] in C# although the dimensions are swapped. This ensures consistency with other postfix type names in F# such as int list list. F# supports multidimensional array types only up to rank 4. ### 5.1.5 Constrained Types A type with constraints has the following form: type when constraints During checking, type is first checked and converted to a static type, then constraints are checked and added to the current inference constraints. The various forms of constraints are described in§5.2. A type of the form typar :> type is a type variable with a subtype constraint and is equivalent to typar when typar :> type. A type of the form #type is an anonymous type with a subtype constraint and is equivalent to 'a when 'a :> type, where 'a is a fresh type inference variable. ## 5.2 Type Constraints A type constraint limits the types that can be used to create an instance of a type parameter or type variable. F# supports the following type constraints: · Subtype constraints · Nullness constraints · Member constraints · Default constructor constraints · Value type constraints · Reference type constraints · Enumeration constraints · Delegate constraints · Unmanaged constraints · Equality and comparison constraints ### 5.2.1 Subtype Constraints An explicit subtype constraint has the following form: typar :> type During checking, typar is first checked as a variable type, type is checked as a type, and the constraint is added to the current inference constraints. Subtype constraints affect type coercion as specified in §5.4.7. Note that subtype constraints also result implicitly from: · Expressions of the form expr :> type. · Patterns of the form pattern :> type. · The use of generic values, types, and members with constraints. · The implicit use of subsumption when using values and members (§14.4.2). A type variable cannot be constrained by two distinct instantiations of the same named type. If two such constraints arise during constraint solving, the type instantiations are constrained to be equal. For example, during type inference, if a type variable is constrained by both IA<int> and IA<string>, an error occurs when the type instantiations are constrained to be equal. This limitation is specifically necessary to simplify type inference, reduce the size of types shown to users, and help ensure the reporting of useful error messages. ### 5.2.2 Nullness Constraints An explicit nullness constraint has the following form: typar: null During checking, typar is checked as a variable type and the constraint is added to the current inference constraints. The conditions that govern when a type satisfies a nullness constraint are specified in §5.4.8. In addition: · The typar must be a statically resolved type variable of the form ^ident. This limitation ensures that the constraint is resolved at compile time, and means that generic code may not use this constraint unless that code is marked inline14.6.7). Note: Nullness constraints are primarily for use during type checking and are used relatively rarely in F# code. Nullness constraints also arise from expressions of the form null. ### 5.2.3 Member Constraints An explicit member constraint has the following form: (typar or ... or typar) : (member-sig) For example, the F# library defines the + operator with the following signature: val inline (+) : ^a -> ^b -> ^c when (^a or ^b) : (static member (+) : ^a * ^b -> ^c) This definition indicates that each use of the + operator results in a constraint on the types that correspond to parameters ^a, ^b, and ^c. If these are named types, then either the named type for ^a or the named type for ^b must support a static member called + that has the given signature. In addition: · Each typar must be a statically resolved type variable (§5.1.2) in the form ^ident. This ensures that the constraint is resolved at compile time against a corresponding named type. It also means that generic code cannot use this constraint unless that code is marked inline14.6.7). · The member-sig cannot be generic; that is, it cannot include explicit type parameter definitions. · The conditions that govern when a type satisfies a member constraint are specified in §14.5.4 . Note: Member constraints are primarily used to define overloaded functions in the F# library and are used relatively rarely in F# code. Uses of overloaded operators do not result in generalized code unless definitions are marked as inline. For example, the function let f x = x + x results in a function f that can be used only to add one type of value, such as int or float. The exact type is determined by later constraints. A type variable may not be involved in the support set of more than one member constraint that has the same name, staticness, argument arity, and support set (§14.5.4). If it is, the argument and return types in the two member constraints are themselves constrained to be equal. This limitation is specifically necessary to simplify type inference, reduce the size of types shown to users, and ensure the reporting of useful error messages. ### 5.2.4 Default Constructor Constraints An explicit default constructor constraint has the following form: typar : (new : unit -> 'T) During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : (new : unit -> 'T) is met if type has a parameterless object constructor. Note: This constraint form exists primarily to provide the full set of constraints that CLI implementations allow. It is rarely used in F# programming. ### 5.2.5 Value Type Constraints An explicit value type constraint has the following form: typar : struct During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : struct is met if type is a value type other than the CLI type System.Nullable<_>. Note: This constraint form exists primarily to provide the full set of constraints that CLI implementations allow. It is rarely used in F# programming. The restriction on System.Nullable is inherited from C# and other CLI languages, which give this type a special syntactic status. In F#, the type option<_> is similar to some uses of System.Nullable<_>. For various technical reasons the two types cannot be equated, notably because types such as System.Nullable<System.Nullable<_>> and System.Nullable<string> are not valid CLI types. ### 5.2.6 Reference Type Constraints An explicit reference type constraint has the following form: typar : not struct During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : not struct is met if type is a reference type. Note: This constraint form exists primarily to provide the full set of constraints that CLI implementations allow. It is rarely used in F# programming. ### 5.2.7 Enumeration Constraints An explicit enumeration constraint has the following form: typar : enum<underlying-type> During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : enum<underlying-type> is met if type is a CLI or F# enumeration type that has constant literal values of type underlying-type. Note: This constraint form exists primarily to allow the definition of library functions such as enum. It is rarely used directly in F# programming. The enum constraint does not imply anything about subtypes. For example, an enum constraint does not imply that the type is a subtype of System.Enum. ### 5.2.8 Delegate Constraints An explicit delegate constraint has the following form: typar : delegate<tupled-arg-type, return-type> During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : delegate<tupled-arg-type, return-types> is met if type is a delegate type D with declaration type D = delegate of object * arg1 * ... * argN and tupled-arg-type = arg1 * ... * argN. That is, the delegate must match the CLI design pattern where the sender object is the first argument to the event. Note: This constraint form exists primarily to allow the definition of certain F# library functions that are related to event programming. It is rarely used directly in F# programming. The delegate constraint does not imply anything about subtypes. In particular, a ‘delegate’ constraint does not imply that the type is a subtype of System.Delegate. The delegate constraint applies only to delegate types that follow the usual form for CLI event handlers, where the first argument is a “sender” object. The reason is that the purpose of the constraint is to simplify the presentation of CLI event handlers to the F# programmer. ### 5.2.9 Unmanaged Constraints An unmanaged constraint has the following form: typar : unmanaged During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : unmanaged is met if type is unmanaged as specified below: · Types sbyte, byte, char, nativeint, unativeint, float32, float, int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, uint64, decimal are unmanaged. · Type nativeptr<type> is unmanaged. · A non-generic struct type whose fields are all unmanaged types is unmanaged. ### 5.2.10Equality and Comparison Constraints Equality constraints and comparison constraints have the following forms, respectively: typar : equality typar : comparison During constraint solving (§14.5), the constraint type : equality is met if both of the following conditions are true: · The type is a named type, and the type definition does not have, and is not inferred to have, the NoEquality attribute. · The type has equality dependencies ty1, ..., tyn, each of which satisfies tyi : equality. The constraint type : comparison is a comparison constraint. Such a constraint is met if all the following conditions hold: · If the type is a named type, then the type definition does not have, and is not inferred to have, the NoComparison attribute, and the type definition implements System.IComparable or is an array type or is System.IntPtr or is System.UIntPtr. · If the type has comparison dependencies ty1, ..., tyn, then each of these must satisfy tyi : comparison An equality constraint is a relatively weak constraint, because with two exceptions, all CLI types satisfy this constraint. The exceptions are F# types that are annotated with the NoEquality attribute and structural types that are inferred to have the NoEquality attribute. The reason is that in other CLI languages, such as C#, it possible to use reference equality on all reference types. A comparison constraint is a stronger constraint, because it usually implies that a type must implement System.IComparable. ## 5.3 Type Parameter Definitions Type parameter definitions can occur in the following locations: · Value definitions in modules · Member definitions · Type definitions · Corresponding specifications in signatures For example, the following defines the type parameter ‘T in a function definition: let id<'T> (x:'T) = x Likewise, in a type definition: type Funcs<'T1,'T2> = { Forward: 'T1 -> 'T2; Backward : 'T2 -> 'T2 } Likewise, in a signature file: val id<'T> : 'T -> 'T Explicit type parameter definitions can include explicit constraint declarations. For example: let dispose2<'T when 'T :> System.IDisposable> (x: 'T, y: 'T) = x.Dispose() y.Dispose() The constraint in this example requires that 'T be a type that supports the IDisposable interface. However, in most circumstances, declarations that imply subtype constraints on arguments can be written more concisely: let throw (x: Exception) = raise x Multiple explicit constraint declarations use and: let multipleConstraints<'T when 'T :> System.IDisposable and 'T :> System.IComparable > (x: 'T, y: 'T) = if x.CompareTo(y) < 0 then x.Dispose() else y.Dispose() Explicit type parameter definitions can declare custom attributes on type parameter definitions (§13.1). ## 5.4 Logical Properties of Types During type checking and elaboration, syntactic types and constraints are processed into a reduced form composed of: · Named types op<types>, where each op consists of a specific type definition, an operator to form function types, an operator to form array types of a specific rank, or an operator to form specific n-tuple types. · Type variables 'ident. ### 5.4.1 Characteristics of Type Definitions Type definitions include CLI type definitions such as System.String and types that are defined in F# code (§8). The following terms are used to describe type definitions: · Type definitions may be generic, with one or more type parameters; for example, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<'Key,'Value>. · The generic parameters of type definitions may have associated formal type constraints. · Type definitions may have custom attributes (§13.1), some of which are relevant to checking and inference. · Type definitions may be type abbreviations (§8.3). These are eliminated for the purposes of checking and inference (see §5.4.2). · Type definitions have a kind which is one of the following: · Class · Interface · Delegate · Struct · Record · Union · Enum · Measure · Abstract The kind is determined at the point of declaration by Type Kind Inference 8.2) if it is not specified explicitly as part of the type definition. The kind of a type refers to the kind of its outermost named type definition, after expanding abbreviations. For example, a type is a class type if it is a named type C<types> where C is of kind class. Thus, System.Collections.Generic.List<int> is a class type. · Type definitions may be sealed. Record, union, function, tuple, struct, delegate, enum, and array types are all sealed, as are class types that are marked with the SealedAttribute attribute. · Type definitions may have zero or one base type declarations. Each base type declaration represents an additional type that is supported by any values that are formed using the type definition. Furthermore, some aspects of the base type are used to form the implementation of the type definition. · Type definitions may have one or more interface declarations. These represent additional encapsulated types that are supported by values that are formed using the type. Class, interface, delegate, function, tuple, record, and union types are all reference type definitions. A type is a reference type if its outermost named type definition is a reference type, after expanding type definitions. Struct types are value types. ### 5.4.2 Expanding Abbreviations and Inference Equations Two static types are considered equivalent and indistinguishable if they are equivalent after taking into account both of the following: · The inference equations that are inferred from the current inference constraints (§14.5). · The expansion of type abbreviations (§8.3). For example, static types may refer to type abbreviations such as int, which is an abbreviation for System.Int32and is declared by the F# library: type int = System.Int32 This means that the types int32 and System.Int32 are considered equivalent, as are System.Int32 -> int and int -> System.Int32. Likewise, consider the process of checking this function: let checkString (x:string) y = (x = y), y.Contains("Hello") During checking, fresh type inference variables are created for values x and y; let’s call them ty1 and ty2. Checking imposes the constraints ty1 = string and ty1 = ty2. The second constraint results from the use of the generic = operator. As a result of constraint solving, ty2 = string is inferred, and thus the type of y is string. All relations on static types are considered after the elimination of all equational inference constraints and type abbreviations. For example, we say int is a struct type because System.Int32 is a struct type. Note: Implementations of F# should attempt to preserve type abbreviations when reporting types and errors to users. This typically means that type abbreviations should be preserved in the logical structure of types throughout the checking process. ### 5.4.3 Type Variables and Definition Sites Static types may be type variables. During type inference, static types may be partial, in that they contain type inference variables that have not been solved or generalized. Type variables may also refer to explicit type parameter definitions, in which case the type variable is said to be rigid and have a definition site. For example, in the following, the definition site of the type parameter 'T is the type definition of C: type C<'T> = 'T * 'T Type variables that do not have a binding site are inference variables. If an expression is composed of multiple sub-expressions, the resulting constraint set is normally the union of the constraints that result from checking all the sub-expressions. However, for some constructs (notably function, value and member definitions), the checking process applies generalization (§14.6.7). Consequently, some intermediate inference variables and constraints are factored out of the intermediate constraint sets and new implicit definition site(s) are assigned for these variables. For example, given the following declaration, the type inference variable that is associated with the value x is generalized and has an implicit definition site at the definition of function id: let id x = x Occasionally in this specification we use a more fully annotated representation of inferred and generalized type information. For example: let id<'a> x'a = x'a Here, 'a represents a generic type parameter that is inferred by applying type inference and generalization to the original source code (§14.6.7), and the annotation represents the definition site of the type variable. ### 5.4.4 Base Type of a Type The base type for the static types is shown in the table. These types are defined in the CLI specifications and corresponding implementation documentation.  Static Type Base Type Abstract types System.Object All array types System.Array Class types The declared base type of the type definition if the type has one; otherwise, System.Object. For generic types C, substitute the formal generic parameters of C for type-inst. Delegate types System.MulticastDelegate Enum types System.Enum Exception types System.Exception Interface types System.Object Record types System.Object Struct types System.ValueType Union types System.Object Variable types System.Object ### 5.4.5 Interfaces Types of a Type The interface types of a named type C<type-inst> are defined by the transitive closure of the interface declarations of C and the interface types of the base type of C, where formal generic parameters are substituted for the actual type instantiation type-inst. The interface types for single dimensional array types ty[] include the transitive closure that starts from the interface System.Collections.Generic.IList<ty>, which includes System.Collections.Generic.ICollection<ty> and System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<ty>. ### 5.4.6 Type Equivalence Two static types ty1 and ty2 are definitely equivalent (with respect to a set of current inference constraints) if either of the following is true: · ty1 has form op<ty11, ..., ty1n>, ty2 has form op<ty21, ..., ty2n> and each ty1i is definitely equivalent to ty2i for all 1 <= i <= n. —OR— · ty1 and ty2 are both variable types, and they both refer to the same definition site or are the same type inference variable. This means that the addition of new constraints may make types definitely equivalent where previously they were not. For example, given Χ = { 'a = int }, we have list<int> = list<'a>. Two static types ty1 and ty2 are feasibly equivalent if ty1 and ty2 may become definitely equivalent if further constraints are added to the current inference constraints. Thus list<int> and list<'a> are feasibly equivalent for the empty constraint set. ### 5.4.7 Subtyping and Coercion A static type ty2 coerces to static type ty1 (with respect to a set of current inference constraints X), if ty1 is in the transitive closure of the base types and interface types of ty2. Static coercion is written with the :> symbol: ty2 :> ty1, Variable types 'T coerce to all types ty if the current inference constraints include a constraint of the form 'T :> ty2, and ty is in the inclusive transitive closure of the base and interface types of ty2. A static type ty2 feasibly coerces to static type ty1 if ty2 coerces to ty1 may hold through the addition of further constraints to the current inference constraints. The result of adding constraints is defined in Constraint Solving (§14.5). ### 5.4.8 Nullness The design of F# aims to greatly reduce the use of null literals in common programming tasks, because they generally result in error-prone code. However: · The use of some null literals is required for interoperation with CLI libraries. · The appearance of null values during execution cannot be completely precluded for technical reasons related to the CLI and CLI libraries. As a result, F# types differ in their treatment of the null literal and null values. All named types and type definitions fall into one of the following categories: · Types with the null literal. These types have null as an “extra” value. The following types are in this category: · All CLI reference types that are defined in other CLI languages. · All types that are defined in F# and annotated with the AllowNullLiteral attribute. For example, System.String and other CLI reference types satisfy this constraint, and these types permit the direct use of the null literal. · Types with null as an abnormal value. These types do not permit the null literal, but do have null as an abnormal value. The following types are in this category: · All F# list, record, tuple, function, class, and interface types. · All F# union types except those that have null as a normal value, as discussed in the next bullet point. For types in this category, the use of the null literal is not directly allowed. However, strictly speaking, it is possible to generate a null value for these types by using certain functions such as Unchecked.defaultof<type>. For these types, null is considered an abnormal value. Operations differ in their use and treatment of null values; for details about evaluation of expressions that might include null values, see §6.9. · Types with null as a representation value. These types do not permit the null literal but use the null value as a representation. For these types, the use of the null literal is not directly permitted. However, one or all of the “normal” values of the type is represented by the null value. The following types are in this category: · The unit type. The null value is used to represent all values of this type. · Any union type that has the Microsoft.FSharp.Core.CompilationRepresentation(CompilationRepresentationFlags.UseNullAsTrueValue) attribute flag and a single null union case. The null value represents this case. In particular, null represents None in the F# option<_> type. · Types without null. These types do not permit the null literal and do not have the null value. All value types are in this category, including primitive integers, floating-point numbers, and any value of a CLI or F# struct type. A static type ty satisfies a nullness constraint ty : null if it: · Has an outermost named type that has the null literal. · Is a variable type with a typar : null constraint. ### 5.4.9 Default Initialization Related to nullness is the default initialization of values of some types to zero values. This technique is common in some programming languages, but the design of F# deliberately de-emphasizes it. However, default initialization is allowed in some circumstances: · Checked default initialization may be used when a type is known to have a valid and “safe” default zero value. For example, the types of fields that are labeled with DefaultValue(true) are checked to ensure that they allow default initialization. · CLI libraries sometimes perform unchecked default initialization, as do the F# library primitives Unchecked.defaultof<_> and Array.zeroCreate. · Any type that satisfies the nullness constraint. · Primitive value types. · Struct types whose field types all permit default initialization. ### 5.4.10Dynamic Conversion Between Types A runtime type vty dynamically converts to a static type ty if any of the following are true: · vty coerces to ty. · vty is int32[]and ty is uint32[](or conversely). Likewise for sbyte[]/byte[], int16[]/uint16[], int64[]/uint64[], and nativeint[]/unativeint[]. · vty is enum[] where enum has underlying type underlying, and ty is underlying[] (or conversely), or the (un)signed equivalent of underlying[] by the immediately preceding rule. · vty is elemty1[], ty is elemty2[], elemty1 is a reference type, and elemty1 converts to elemty2. · ty is System.Nullable<vty>. Note that this specification does not define the full algebra of the conversions of runtime types to static types because the information that is available in runtime types is implementation dependent. However, the specification does state the conditions under which objects are guaranteed to have a runtime type that is compatible with a particular static type. Note: This specification covers the additional rules of CLI dynamic conversions, all of which apply to F# types. For example: let x = box [| System.DayOfWeek.Monday |] let y = x :? int32[] printf "%b" y // true In the previous code, the type System.DayOfWeek.Monday[] does not statically coerce to int32[], but the expression x :? int32[] evaluates to true. let x = box [| 1 |] let y = x :? uint32 [] printf "%b" y // true In the previous code, the type int32[] does not statically coerce to uint32[], but the expression x :? uint32 [] evaluates to true. let x = box [| "" |] let y = x :? obj [] printf "%b" y // true In the previous code, the type string[] does not statically coerce to obj[], but the expression x :? obj []evaluates to true. let x = box 1 let y = x :? System.Nullable<int32> printf "%b" y // true In the previous code, the type int32 does not coerce to System.Nullable<int32>, but the expression x :? System.Nullable<int32> evaluates to true. # 6. Expressions The expression forms and related elements are as follows: expr := const -- a constant value ( expr ) -- block expression begin expr end -- block expression long-ident-or-op -- lookup expression expr '.' long-ident-or-op -- dot lookup expression expr expr -- application expression expr(expr) -- high precedence application expr<types> -- type application expression expr infix-op expr -- infix application expression prefix-op expr -- prefix application expression expr.[expr] -- indexed lookup expression expr.[slice-range] -- slice expression (1D) expr.[slice-range, slice-range] -- slice expression (2D) expr <- expr -- assignment expression expr , ... , expr -- tuple expression new type expr -- simple object expression { new base-call object-members interface-impls } -- object expression { field-initializers } -- record expression { expr with field-initializers } -- record cloning expression [ expr ; ... ; expr ] -- list expression [| expr ; ... ; expr |] -- array expression expr { comp-or-range-expr } -- computation expression [ comp-or-range-expr] -- computed list expression [| comp-or-range-expr |] -- computed array expression lazy expr -- delayed expression null -- the "null" value for a reference type expr : type -- type annotation expr :> type -- static upcast coercion expr :? type -- dynamic type test expr :?> type -- dynamic downcast coercion upcast expr -- static upcast expression downcast expr -- dynamic downcast expression let function-defn in expr –- function definition expression let value-defn in expr –- value definition expression let rec function-or-value-defns in expr -- recursive definition expression use ident = expr in expr –- deterministic disposal expression fun argument-pats -> expr -- function expression function rules -- matching function expression expr ; expr -- sequential execution expression match expr with rules -- match expression try expr with rules -- try/with expression try expr finally expr -- try/finally expression if expr then expr elif-branchesopt else-branchopt -- conditional expression while expr do expr done -- while loop for ident = expr to expr do expr done -- simple for loop for pat in expr-or-range-expr do expr done -- enumerable for loop assert expr -- assert expression <@ expr @> -- quoted expression <@@ expr @@> -- quoted expression %expr -- expression splice %%expr -- weakly typed expression splice (static-typars : (member-sig) expr) -– static member invocation Expressions are defined in terms of patterns and other entities that are discussed later in this specification. The following constructs are also used: exprs := expr ',' ... ',' expr expr-or-range-expr := expr range-expr elif-branches := elif-branch ... elif-branch elif-branch := elif expr then expr else-branch := else expr function-or-value-defn := function-defn value-defn function-defn := inlineopt accessopt ident-or-op typar-defnsopt argument-pats return-typeopt = expr value-defn := mutableopt accessopt pat typar-defnsopt return-typeopt = expr return-type := : type function-or-value-defns := function-or-value-defn and ... and function-or-value-defn argument-pats:= atomic-pat ... atomic-pat field-initializer := long-ident = expr -- field initialization field-initializers := field-initializer ; ... ; field-initializer object-construction := type expr -- construction expression type -- interface construction expression base-call := object-construction -- anonymous base construction object-construction as ident -- named base construction interface-impls := interface-impl ... interface-impl interface-impl := interface type object-membersopt -- interface implementation object-members := with member-defns end member-defns := member-defn ... member-defn Computation and range expressions are defined in terms of the following productions: comp-or-range-expr := comp-expr short-comp-expr range-expr comp-expr := let! pat = expr in comp-expr -- binding computation let pat = expr in comp-expr do! expr in comp-expr -- sequential computation do expr in comp-expr use! pat = expr in comp-expr -- auto cleanup computation use pat = expr in comp-expr yield! expr -- yield computation yield expr -- yield result return! expr -- return computation return expr -- return result if expr then comp-expr -- control flow or imperative action if expr then expr else comp-expr match expr with pat -> comp-expr | … | pat -> comp-expr try comp-expr with pat -> comp-expr | … | pat -> comp-expr try comp-expr finally expr while expr do comp-expr done for ident = expr to expr do comp-expr done for pat in expr-or-range-expr do comp-expr done comp-expr ; comp-expr expr short-comp-expr := for pat in expr-or-range-expr -> expr -- yield result range-expr := expr .. expr -- range sequence expr .. expr .. expr -- range sequence with skip slice-range := expr.. -- slice from index to end ..expr -- slice from start to index expr..expr -- slice from index to index '*' -- slice from start to end ## 6.1 Some Checking and Inference Terminology The rules applied to check individual expressions are described in the following subsections. Where necessary, these sections reference specific inference procedures such as Name Resolution14.1) and Constraint Solving14.5). All expressions are assigned a static type through type checking and inference. During type checking, each expression is checked with respect to an initial type. The initial type establishes some of the information available to resolve method overloading and other language constructs. We also use the following terminology: · The phrase “the type ty1 is asserted to be equal to the type ty2” or simply “ty1 = ty2 is asserted” indicates that the constraint “ty1 = ty2” is added to the current inference constraints. · The phrase “ty1 is asserted to be a subtype of ty2” or simply “ty1 :> ty2 is asserted” indicates that the constraint ty1 :> ty2 is added to the current inference constraints. · The phrase “type ty is known to ...” indicates that the initial type satisfies the given property given the current inference constraints. · The phrase “the expression expr has type ty” means the initial type of the expression is asserted to be equal to ty. Additionally: · The addition of constraints to the type inference constraint set fails if it causes an inconsistent set of constraints (§14.5). In this case either an error is reported or, if we are only attempting to assert the condition, the state of the inference procedure is left unchanged and the test fails. ## 6.2 Elaboration and Elaborated Expressions Checking an expression generates an elaborated expression in a simpler, reduced language that effectively contains a fully resolved and annotated form of the expression. The elaborated expression provides more explicit information than the source form. For example, the elaborated form of System.Console.WriteLine("Hello") indicates exactly which overloaded method definition the call has resolved to. Elaborated forms are underlined in this specification, for example, let x = 1 in x + x. · Constants · Resolved value references: path · Lambda expressions: (fun ident -> expr) · Primitive object expressions · Data expressions (tuples, union cases, array creation, record creation) · Default initialization expressions · Local definitions of values: let ident = expr in expr · Local definitions of functions: let rec ident = expr and ... and ident = expr in expr · Applications of methods and functions (with static overloading resolved) · Dynamic type coercions: expr :?> type · Dynamic type tests: expr :? type · For-loops: for ident in ident to ident do expr done · While-loops: while expr do expr done · Sequencing: expr; expr · Try-with: try expr with expr · Try-finally: try expr finally expr · The constructs required for the elaboration of pattern matching (§7). · Null tests · Switches on integers and other types · Switches on union cases · Switches on the runtime types of objects The following constructs are used in the elaborated forms of expressions that make direct assignments to local variables and arrays and generate “byref” pointer values. The operations are loosely named after their corresponding primitive constructs in the CLI. · Assigning to a byref-pointer: expr <-stobj expr · Generating a byref-pointer by taking the address of a mutable value: &path. · Generating a byref-pointer by taking the address of a record field: &(expr.field) · Generating a byref-pointer by taking the address of an array element: &(expr.[expr]) Elaborated expressions form the basis for evaluation (see §6.9) and for the expression trees that quoted expressions return(see §6.8). By convention, when describing the process of elaborating compound expressions, we omit the process of recursively elaborating sub-expressions. ## 6.3 Data Expressions This section describes the following data expressions: · Simple constant expressions · Tuple expressions · List expressions · Array expressions · Record expressions · Copy-and-update record expressions · Function expressions · Object expressions · Delayed expressions · Computation expressions · Sequence expressions · Range expressions · Lists via sequence expressions · Arrays via sequence expressions · Null expressions · 'printf' formats ### 6.3.1 Simple Constant Expressions Simple constant expressions are numeric, string, Boolean and unit constants. For example: 3y // sbyte 32uy // byte 17s // int16 18us // uint16 86 // int/int32 99u // uint32 99999999L // int64 10328273UL // uint64 1. // float/double 1.01 // float/double 1.01e10 // float/double 1.0f // float32/single 1.01f // float32/single 1.01e10f // float32/single 99999999n // nativeint (System.IntPtr) 10328273un // unativeint (System.UIntPtr) 99999999I // bigint (System.Numerics.BigInteger or user-specified) 'a' // char (System.Char) "3" // string (String) "c:\\home" // string (System.String) @"c:\home" // string (Verbatim Unicode, System.String) "ASCII"B // byte[] () // unit (Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Unit) false // bool (System.Boolean) true // bool (System.Boolean) Simple constant expressions have the corresponding simple type and elaborate to the corresponding simple constant value. Integer literals with the suffixes Q, R, Z, I, N, G are processed using the following syntactic translation: xxxx<suffix> For xxxx = 0 NumericLiteral<suffix>.FromZero() For xxxx = 1 NumericLiteral<suffix>.FromOne() For xxxx in the Int32 range NumericLiteral<suffix>.FromInt32(xxxx) For xxxx in the Int64 range NumericLiteral<suffix>.FromInt64(xxxx) For other numbers NumericLiteral<suffix>.FromString("xxxx") For example, defining a module NumericLiteralZ as below enables the use of the literal form 32Z to generate a sequence of 32 ‘Z’ characters. No literal syntax is available for numbers outside the range of 32-bit integers. module NumericLiteralZ = let FromZero() = "" let FromOne() = "Z" let FromInt32 n = String.replicate n "Z" F# compilers may optimize on the assumption that calls to numeric literal functions always terminate, are idempotent, and do not have observable side effects. ### 6.3.2 Tuple Expressions An expression of the form expr1, ..., exprn is a tuple expression. For example: let three = (1,2,"3") let blastoff = (10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0) The expression has the type (ty1 * ... * tyn) for fresh types ty1tyn, and each individual expression ei is checked using initial type tyi. Tuple types and expressions are translated into applications of a family of F# library types named System.Tuple. Tuple types ty1 * ... * tyn are translated as follows: · For n <= 7 the elaborated form is Tuple<ty1,...,tyn>. · For larger n, tuple types are shorthand for applications of the additional F# library type System.Tuple<_> as follows: · For n = 8 the elaborated form is Tuple<ty1,...,ty7,Tuple<ty8>>. · For 9 <= n the elaborated form is Tuple<ty1,...,ty7,tyB> where tyB is the converted form of the type (ty8 *...* tyn). Tuple expressions (expr1,...,exprn) are translated as follows: · For n <= 7 the elaborated form new Tuple<ty1,…,tyn>(expr1,...,exprn). · For n = 8 the elaborated form new Tuple<ty1,…,ty7,Tuple<ty8>>(expr1,...,expr7, new Tuple<ty8>(expr8). · For 9 <= n the elaborated form new Tuple<ty1,...ty7,ty8n>(expr1,..., expr7, new ty8n(e8n) where ty8n is the type (ty8*...* tyn) and expr8n is the elaborated form of the expression expr8,..., exprn. When considered as static types, tuple types are distinct from their encoded form. However, the encoded form of tuple values and types is visible in the F# type system through runtime types. For example, typeof<int * int> is equivalent to typeof<System.Tuple<int,int>>, and (1,2) has the runtime type System.Tuple<int,int>. Likewise, (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) has the runtime type Tuple<int,int,int,int,int,int,int,Tuple<int,int>>. Note: The above encoding is invertible and the substitution of types for type variables preserves this inversion. This means, among other things, that the F# reflection library can correctly report tuple types based on runtime System.Type values. The inversion is defined by: · For the runtime type Tuple<ty1,...,tyN> when n <= 7, the corresponding F# tuple type is ty1 * ... * tyN · For the runtime type Tuple<ty1,..., Tuple<tyN>> when n = 8, the corresponding F# tuple type is ty1 * ... * ty8 · For the runtime type Tuple<ty1,..., ty7,tyBn> , if tyBn corresponds to the F# tuple type ty8 * ... * tyN, then the corresponding runtime type is ty1 * ... * tyN. Runtime types of other forms do not have a corresponding tuple type. In particular, runtime types that are instantiations of the eight-tuple type Tuple<_,_,_,_,_,_,_,_> must always have Tuple<_> in the final position. Syntactic types that have some other form of type in this position are not permitted, and if such an instantiation occurs in F# code or CLI library metadata that is referenced by F# code, an F# implementation may report an error. ### 6.3.3 List Expressions An expression of the form [expr1;...; exprn] is a list expression. The initial type of the expression is asserted to be Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.List<ty> for a fresh type ty. If ty is a named type, each expression expri is checked using a fresh type ty' as its initial type, with the constraint ty' :> ty. Otherwise, each expression expri is checked using ty as its initial type. List expressions elaborate to uses of Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.List<_> as op_Cons(expr1,(op_Cons(expr2... op_Cons (exprn, op_Nil)...) where op_Cons and op_Nil are the union cases with symbolic names :: and [] respectively. ### 6.3.4 Array Expressions An expression of the form [|expr1;...; exprn |] is an array expression. The initial type of the expression is asserted to be ty[] for a fresh type ty. If this assertion determines that ty is a named type, each expression expri is checked using a fresh type ty' as its initial type, with the constraint ty' :> ty. Otherwise, each expression expri is checked using ty as its initial type. Array expressions are a primitive elaborated form. Note: The F# implementation ensures that large arrays of constants of type bool, char, byte, sbyte, int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, and uint64 are compiled to an efficient binary representation based on a call to System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.InitializeArray. ### 6.3.5 Record Expressions An expression of the form { field-initializer1 ; … ; field-initializern } is a record construction expression. For example: type Data = { Count : int; Name : string } let data1 = { Count = 3; Name = "Hello"; } let data2 = { Name = "Hello"; Count= 3 } In the following example, data4 uses a long identifier to indicate the relevant field: module M = type Data = { Age : int; Name : string; Height : float } let data3 = { M.Age = 17; M.Name = "John"; M.Height = 186.0 } let data4 = { data3 with M.Name = "Bill"; M.Height = 176.0 } Fields may also be referenced by using the name of the containing type: module M2 = type Data = { Age : int; Name : string; Height : float } let data5 = { M2.Data.Age = 17; M2.Data.Name = "John"; M2.Data.Height = 186.0 } let data6 = { data5 with M2.Data.Name = "Bill"; M2.Data.Height=176.0 } open M2 let data7 = { Data.Age = 17; Data.Name = "John"; Data.Height = 186.0 } let data8 = { data5 with Data.Name = "Bill"; Data.Height=176.0 } Each field-initializeri has the form field-labeli = expri. Each field-labeli is a long-ident, which must resolve to a field Fi in a unique record type R as follows: · If field-labeli is a single identifier fld and the initial type is known to be a record type R<_,...,_> that has field Fi with name fld, then the field label resolves to Fi. · If field-labeli is not a single identifier or if the initial type is a variable type, then the field label is resolved by performing Field Label Resolution (see §14.1) on field-labeli. This procedure results in a set of fields FSeti. Each element of this set has a corresponding record type, thus resulting in a set of record types RSeti. The intersection of all RSeti must yield a single record type R, and each field then resolves to the corresponding field in R. The set of fields must be complete. That is, each field in record type R must have exactly one field definition. Each referenced field must be accessible (see §10.5), as must the type R. After all field labels are resolved, the overall record expression is asserted to be of type R<ty1,...,tyN> for fresh types ty1,...,tyN. Each expri is then checked in turn. The initial type is determined as follows: 1. Assume the type of the corresponding field Fi in R<ty1,...,tyN> is ftyi 2. If the type of Fi prior to taking into account the instantiation <ty1,...,tyN> is a named type, then the initial type is a fresh type inference variable fty'i with a constraint fty'i :> ftyi. 3. Otherwise the initial type is ftyi. Primitive record constructions are an elaborated form in which the fields appear in the same order as in the record type definition. Record expressions themselves elaborate to a form that may introduce local value definitions to ensure that expressions are evaluated in the same order that the field definitions appear in the original expression. For example: type R = {b : int; a : int } { a = 1 + 1; b = 2 } The expression on the last line elaborates to let v = 1 + 1 in { b = 2; a = v }. Records expressions are also used for object initializations in additional object constructor definitions (§8.6.3). For example: type C = val x : int val y : int new() = { x = 1; y = 2 } Note: The following record initialization form is deprecated: { new type with Field1 = expr1 and … and Fieldn = exprn } The F# implementation allows the use of this form only with uppercase identifiers. F# code should not use this expression form. A future version of the F# language will issue a deprecation warning. ### 6.3.6 Copy-and-update Record Expressions A copy-and-update record expression has the following form: { expr with field-initializers } where field-initializers is of the following form: field-label1 = expr1 ; … ; field-labeln = exprn Each field-labeli is a long-ident. In the following example, data2 is defined by using such an expression: type Data = { Age : int; Name : string; Height : float } let data1 = { Age = 17; Name = "John"; Height = 186.0 } let data2 = { data1 with Name = "Bill"; Height = 176.0 } The expression expr is first checked with the same initial type as the overall expression. Next, the field definitions are resolved by using the same technique as for record expressions. Each field label must resolve to a field Fi in a single record type R, all of whose fields are accessible. After all field labels are resolved, the overall record expression is asserted to be of type R<ty1,...,tyN> for fresh types ty1,...,tyN. Each expri is then checked in turn with initial type that results from the following procedure: 1. Assume the type of the corresponding field Fi in R<ty1,...,tyN> is ftyi. 2. If the type of Fi before considering the instantiation <ty1,...,tyN> is a named type, then the initial type is a fresh type inference variable fty'i with a constraint fty'i :> ftyi. 3. Otherwise, the initial type is ftyi. A copy-and-update record expression elaborates as if it were a record expression written as follows: let v = expr in { field-label1 = expr1 ; … ; field-labeln = exprn; F1 = v.F1; ... ; FM = v.FM } where F1 ... FM are the fields of R that are not defined in field-initializers and v is a fresh variable. ### 6.3.7 Function Expressions An expression of the form fun pat1 ... patn -> expr is a function expression. For example: (fun x -> x + 1) (fun x y -> x + y) (fun [x] -> x) // note, incomplete match (fun (x,y) (z,w) -> x + y + z + w) Function expressions that involve only variable patterns are a primitive elaborated form. Function expressions that involve non-variable patterns elaborate as if they had been written as follows: fun v1 ... vn -> let pat1 = v1 ... let patn = vn expr No pattern matching is performed until all arguments have been received. For example, the following does not raise a MatchFailureException exception: let f = fun [x] y -> y let g = f [] // ok However, if a third line is added, a MatchFailureException exception is raised: let z = g 3 // MatchFailureException is raised ### 6.3.8 Object Expressions An expression of the following form is an object expression: { new ty0 args-expropt object-members interface ty1 object-members1 … interface tyn object-membersn } In the case of the interface declarations, the object-members are optional and are considered empty if absent. Each set of object-members has the form: with member-defns endopt Lexical filtering inserts simulated$end tokens when lightweight syntax is used.

Each member of an object expression members can use the keyword member, override, or default. The keyword member can be used even when overriding a member or implementing an interface.

For example:

let obj1 =

{ new System.Collections.Generic.IComparer<int> with

member x.Compare(a,b) = compare (a % 7) (b % 7) }

let obj2 =

{ new System.Object() with
member x.ToString () = "Hello" }

let obj3 =

{ new System.Object() with
member x.ToString () = "Hello, base.ToString() = " + base.ToString() }

let obj4 =

{ new System.Object() with
member x.Finalize() = printfn "Finalize";
interface System.IDisposable with
member x.Dispose() = printfn "Dispose";  }

An object expression can specify additional interfaces beyond those required to fulfill the abstract slots of the type being implemented. For example, obj4 in the preceding examples has static type System.Object but the object additionally implements the interface System.IDisposable. The additional interfaces are not part of the static type of the overall expression, but can be revealed through type tests.

Object expressions are statically checked as follows.

1.     First, ty0 to tyn are checked to verify that they are named types. The overall type of the expression is ty0 and is asserted to be equal to the initial type of the expression. However, if ty0 is type equivalent to System.Object and ty1 exists, then the overall type is instead ty1.

2.     The type ty0 must be a class or interface type. The base construction argument args-expr must appear if and only if ty0 is a class type. The type must have one or more accessible constructors; the call to these constructors is resolved and elaborated using Method Application Resolution (see §14.4). Except for ty0, each tyi must be an interface type.

3.     The F# compiler attempts to associate each member with a unique dispatch slot by using dispatch slot inference (§14.7). If a unique matching dispatch slot is found, then the argument types and return type of the member are constrained to be precisely those of the dispatch slot.

4.     The arguments, patterns, and expressions that constitute the bodies of all implementing members are next checked one by one to verify the following:

·         For each member, the “this” value for the member is in scope and has type ty0.

·         Each member of an object expression can initially access the protected members of ty0.

·         If the variable base-ident appears, it must be named base, and in each member a base variable with this name is in scope. Base variables can be used only in the member implementations of an object expression, and are subject to the same limitations as byref values described in §14.9.

The object must satisfy dispatch slot checking 14.8) which ensures that a one-to-one mapping exists between dispatch slots and their implementations.

Object expressions elaborate to a primitive form. At execution, each object expression creates an object whose runtime type is compatible with all of the tyi that have a dispatch map that is the result of dispatch slot checking 14.8).

The following example shows how to both implement an interface and override a method from System.Object. The overall type of the expression is INewIdentity.

type public INewIdentity =

abstract IsAnonymous : bool

let anon =

{ new System.Object() with

member i.ToString() = "anonymous"

interface INewIdentity with

member i.IsAnonymous = true }

### 6.3.9     Delayed Expressions

An expression of the form lazy expr is a delayed expression. For example:

lazy (printfn "hello world")

is syntactic sugar for

new System.Lazy (fun () -> expr)

The behavior of the System.Lazy library type ensures that expression expr is evaluated on demand in response to a .Value operation on the lazy value.

### 6.3.10Computation Expressions

The following expression forms are all computation expressions:

expr { for ... }

expr { let ... }

expr { let! ... }

expr { use ... }

expr { while ... }

expr { yield ... }

expr { yield! ... }

expr { try ... }

expr { return ... }

expr { return! ... }

More specifically, computation expressions have the following form:

builder-expr { cexpr }

where cexpr is, syntactically, the grammar of expressions with the additional constructs that are defined in comp-expr. Computation expressions are used for sequences and other non-standard interpretations of the F# expression syntax. For a fresh variable b, the expression

builder-expr { cexpr }

translates to

let b = builder-expr in {| cexpr |}C

The type of b must be a named type after the checking of builder-expr. The subscript indicates that custom operations (C) are acceptable but are not required.

If the inferred type of b has one or more of the Run, Delay, or Quote methods when builder-expr is checked, the translation involves those methods. For example, when all three methods exist, the same expression translates to:

let b = builder-expr in b.Run (<@ b.Delay(fun () -> {| cexpr |}C) >@)

If a Run method does not exist on the inferred type of b, the call to Run is omitted. Likewise, if no Delay method exists on the type of b, that call and the inner lambda are omitted, so the expression translates to the following:

let b = builder-expr in b.Run (<@ {| cexpr |}C >@)

Similarly, if a Quote method exists on the inferred type of b, at-signs <@ @> are placed around {| cexpr |}C or b.Delay(fun () -> {| cexpr |}C) if a Delay method also exists.

The translation {| cexpr |}C , which rewrites computation expressions to core language expressions, is defined recursively according to the following rules:

{| cexpr |}C T (cexpr, [], fun v -> v, true)

During the translation, we use the helper function {| cexpr |}0 to denote a translation that does not involve custom operations:

{| cexpr |}0 T (cexpr, [], fun v -> v, false)

T(e, V, C, q) where e : the computation expression being translated

V : a set of scoped variables

C : continuation (or context where “e” occurs,

up to a hole to be filled by the result of translating “e”)

q : Boolean that indicates whether a custom operator is allowed

Then, T is defined for each computation expression e:

T(let p = e in ce, V, C, q) = T(ce, V Å var(p), lv.C(let p = e in v), q)

T(let! p = e in ce, V, C, q) =  T(ce, V Å var(p), lv.C(b.Bind(src(e),fun p -> v), q)

T(yield e, V, C, q) = C(b.Yield(e))

T(yield! e, V, C, q) = C(b.YieldFrom(src(e)))

T(return e, V, C, q) = C(b.Return(e))

T(return! e, V, C, q) = C(b.ReturnFrom(src(e)))

T(use p = e in ce, V, C, q) = C(b.Using(e, fun p -> {| ce |}0))

T(use! p = e in ce, V, C, q) = C(b.Bind(src(e), fun p -> b.Using(p, fun p -> {| ce |}0))

T(match e with pi -> cei, V, C, q) = C(match e with pi -> {| cei |}0)

T(while e do ce, V, C, q) = T(ce, V, lv.C(b.While(fun () -> e, b.Delay(fun () -> v))), q)

T(try ce with pi -> cei, V, C, q) =
Assert(not q); C(b.TryWith(b.Delay(fun () ->
{| ce |}0), fun pi -> {| cei |}0))

T(try ce finally e, V, C, q) =
Assert(not q); C(b.TryFinally(b.Delay(fun () ->
{| ce |}0), fun () -> e))

T(if e then ce, V, C, q) = T(ce, V, lv.C(if e then v else b.Zero()), q)

T(if e then ce1 else ce2, V, C, q) = Assert(not q); C(if e then  {| ce1 |}0) else  {| ce2 |}0)

T(for x = e1 to e2 do ce, V, C, q) = T(for x in e1 .. e2 do ce, V, C, q)

T(for p1 in e1 do joinOp p2 in e2 onWord (e3 eop e4) ce, V, C, q) =
Assert(q); T(for pat(V) in b.Join(src(e
1), src(e2), lp1.e3, lp2.e4,

lp1. lp2.(p1,p2)) do ce, V , C, q)

T(for p1 in e1 do groupJoinOp p2 in e2 onWord (e3 eop e4) into p3 ce, V, C, q) =
Assert(q); T(for pat(V) in b.GroupJoin(src(e
1),
src(e
2), lp1.e3, lp2.e4, lp1. lp3.(p1,p3)) do ce, V , C, q)

T(for x in e do ce, V, C, q) = T(ce, V Å {x}, lv.C(b.For(src(e), fun x -> v)), q)

T(do e in ce, V, C, q) = T(ce, V, lv.C(e; v), q)

T(do! e in ce, V, C, q) = T(let! () = e in ce, V, C, q)

T(joinOp p2 in e2 on (e3 eop e4) ce, V, C, q) =
T
(for pat(V) in C(
{| yield exp(V) |}0) do join p2 in e2 onWord (e3 eop e4) ce, V, lv.v, q)

T(groupJoinOp p2 in e2 onWord (e3 eop e4) into p3 ce, V, C, q) =
T
(for pat(V) in C(
{| yield exp(V) |}0) do groupJoin p2 in e2 on (e3 eop e4) into p3 ce,
V,
lv.v, q)

T([<CustomOperator("Cop")>]cop arg, V, C, q) = Assert (q); [| cop arg, C(b.Yield exp(V)) |]V

T([<CustomOperator("Cop", MaintainsVarSpaceUsingBind=true)>]cop arg; e, V, C, q) =
Assert (q); CL (cop arg; e, V, C(b.Return
exp(V)), false)

T([<CustomOperator("Cop")>]cop arg; e, V, C, q) =
Assert (q); CL (cop arg; e, V, C(b.Y
ield exp(V)), false)

T(ce1; ce2, V, C, q) = C(b.Combine({| ce1 |}0, b.Delay(fun () ->  {| ce2 |}0)))

T(do! e;, V, C, q) = T(let! () = src(e) in b.Return(), V, C, q)

T(e;, V, C, q) = C(e;b.Zero())

The following notes apply to the translations:

·         The lambda expression (fun f x -> b) is represented by lx.b.

·         The auxiliary function var(p) denotes a set of variables that are introduced by a pattern p. For example:
var(x) = {x}, var((x,y)) = {x,y} or var(S (x,y)) = {x,y}
where S is a type constructor.

·         Å is an update operator for a set V to denote extended variable spaces. It updates the existing variables. For example, {x,y} Å var((x,z)) becomes {x,y,z} where the second x replaces the first x.

·         The auxiliary function pat(V) denotes a pattern tuple that represents a set of variables in V. For example, pat({x,y}) becomes (x,y), where x and y represent pattern expressions.

·         The auxiliary function exp(V) denotes a tuple expression that represents a set of variables in V. For example, exp({x,y}) becomes (x,y), where x and y represent variable expressions.

·         The auxiliary function src(e) denotes b.Source(e) if the innermost ForEach is from the user code instead of generated by the translation, and a builder b contains a Source method. Otherwise, src(e) denotes e.

·         Assert() checks whether a custom operator is allowed. If not, an error message is reported. Custom operators may not be used within try/with, try/finally, if/then/else, use, match, or sequential execution expressions such as (e1;e2). For example, you cannot use if/then/else in any computation expressions for which a builder defines any custom operators, even if the custom operators are not used.

·         The operator eop denotes one of =, ?=, =? or ?=?.

·         joinOp and onWord represent keywords for join-like operations that are declared in CustomOperationAttribute. For example, [<CustomOperator("join", IsLikeJoin=true, JoinConditionWord="on")>] declares join and on.

·         Similarly, groupJoinOp represents a keyword for groupJoin-like operations, declared in CustomOperationAttribute. For example, [<CustomOperator("groupJoin", IsLikeGroupJoin=true, JoinConditionWord="on")>] declares groupJoin and on.

·         The auxiliary translation CL is defined as follows:

CL (e1, V, e2, bind) where e1: the computation expression being translated

V: a set of scoped variables

e2: the expression that will be translated after e1 is done

bind: indicator if it is for Bind (true) or iterator (false).

The following shows translations for the uses of CL in the preceding computation expressions:

CL (cop arg, V, e’, bind) = [| cop arg, e’ |]V

CL ([<MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind=true>]cop arg into p; e, V, e’, bind) =
T(let! p = e’ in e, [],
lv.v, true)

CL (cop arg into p; e, V, e’, bind) = T(for p in e’ do e, [], lv.v, true)

CL ([<MaintainsVariableSpace=true>]cop arg; e, V, e’, bind) =
CL
(e, V,
[| cop arg, e’ |]V, true)

CL ([<MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind=true>]cop arg; e, V, e’, bind) =
CL
(e, V,
[| cop arg, e’ |]V, true)

CL (cop arg; e, V, e’, bind) = CL (e, [], [| cop arg, e’ |]V, false)

CL (e, V, e’, true) = T(let! pat(V) = e’ in e, V, lv.v, true)

CL (e, V, e’, false) = T(for pat(V) in e’ do e, V, lv.v, true)

·         The auxiliary translation [| e1, e2 |]V is defined as follows:

[|[ e1, e2 |]V where e1: the custom operator available in a build

e2: the context argument that will be passed to a custom operator

V: a list of bound variables

[|[<CustomOperator(" Cop")>] cop [<ProjectionParameter>] arg, e |]V =

b.Cop (e, fun pat(V) -> arg)

[|[<CustomOperator("Cop")>] cop arg, e |]V = b.Cop (e, arg)

·         The final two translation rules (for do! e; and do! e;) apply only for the final expression in the computation expression. The semicolon (;) can be omitted.

The following attributes specify custom operations:

·         CustomOperationAttribute indicates that a member of a builder type implements a custom operation in a computation expression. The attribute has one parameter: the name of the custom operation. The operation can have the following properties:

·         MaintainsVariableSpace indicates that the custom operation maintains the variable space of a computation expression.

·         MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind indicates that the custom operation maintains the variable space of a computation expression through the use of a bind operation.

·         AllowIntoPattern indicates that the custom operation supports the use of ‘into’ immediately following the operation in a computation expression to consume the result of the operation.

·         IsLikeJoin indicates that the custom operation is similar to a join in a sequence computation, which supports two inputs and a correlation constraint.

·         IsLikeGroupJoin indicates that the custom operation is similar to a group join in a sequence computation, which support two inputs and a correlation constraint, and generates a group.

·         JoinConditionWord indicates the names used for the ‘on’ part of the custom operator for join-like operators.

·         ProjectionParameterAttribute indicates that, when a custom operation is used in a computation expression, a parameter is automatically parameterized by the variable space of the computation expression.

The following examples show how the translation works. Assume the following simple sequence builder:

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Yield (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }   let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

Then, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

yield i*i

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.For([1..10], fun i ->

b.Yield(i*i))

CustomOperationAttribute allows us to define custom operations. For example, the simple sequence builder can have a custom operator, “where”:

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Yield (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }     []     member __.Where (source : seq<'a>, f: 'a -> bool) : seq<'a> = Seq.filter f source          let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

Then, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

where (fun x -> x > 5)

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.Where(

b.For([1..10], fun i ->

b.Yield (i)),

fun x -> x > 5)

ProjectionParameterAttribute automatically adds a parameter from the variable space of the computation expression. For example, ProjectionParameterAttribute can be attached to the second argument of the where operator:

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Yield (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }     []     member __.Where (source: seq<'a>, []f: 'a -> bool) : seq<'a> =            Seq.filter f source          let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

Then, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

where (i > 5)

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.Where(

b.For([1..10], fun i ->

b.Yield (i)),

fun i -> i > 5)

ProjectionParameterAttribute is useful when a let binding appears between ForEach and the custom operators. For example, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

let j = i * i

where (i > 5 && j < 49)

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.Where(

b.For([1..10], fun i ->

let j = i * i

b.Yield (i,j)),

fun (i,j) -> i > 5 && j < 49)

Without ProjectionParameterAttribute, a user would be required to write “fun (i,j) ->” explicitly.

Now, assume that we want to write the condition “where (i > 5 && j < 49)” in the following syntax:

where (i > 5)

where (j < 49)

To support this style, the where custom operator should produce a computation that has the same variable space as the input computation. That is, j should be available in the second where. The following example uses the MaintainsVariableSpace property on the custom operator to specify this behavior:

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Yield (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }     []     member __.Where (source: seq<'a>, []f: 'a -> bool) : seq<'a> =            Seq.filter f source          let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

Then, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

let j = i * i

where (i > 5)

where (j < 49)

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.Where(

b.Where(

b.For([1..10], fun i ->

let j = i * i

b.Yield (i,j)),

fun (i,j) -> i > 5),

fun (i,j) -> j < 49)

When we may not want to produce the variable space but rather want to explicitly express the chain of the where operator, we can design this simple sequence builder in a slightly different way. For example, we can express the same expression in the following way:

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

where (i > 5) into j

where (j*j < 49)

}

In this example, instead of having a let-binding (for j in the previous example) and passing variable space (including j) down to the chain, we can introduce a special syntax that captures a value into a pattern variable and passes only this variable down to the chain, which is arguably more readable. For this case, AllowIntoPattern allows the custom operation to have an into syntax:

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Yield (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }       []     member __.Where (source: seq<'a>, []f: 'a -> bool) : seq<'a> =         Seq.filter f source        let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

Then, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

where (i > 5) into j

where (j*j < 49)

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.Where(

b.For(

b.Where(

b.For([1..10], fun i -> b.Yield (i))

fun i -> i>5),

fun j -> b.Yield (j)),

fun j -> j*j < 49)

Note that the into keyword is not customizable, unlike join and on.

In addition to MaintainsVariableSpace, MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBind is provided to pass variable space down to the chain in a different way. For example:

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Return (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }     member __.Bind (value , cont) = cont value       []     member __.Where (source: seq<'a>, []f: 'a -> bool) : seq<'a> =         Seq.filter f source      let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

The presence of MaintainsVariableSpaceUsingBindAttribute requires Return and Bind methods during the translation.

Then, the expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

where (i > 5 && i*i < 49) into j

return j

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.Bind(

b.Where(B.For([1..10], fun i -> b.Return (i)),

fun i -> i > 5 && i*i < 49),

fun j -> b.Return (j))

where Bind is called to capture the pattern variable j. Note that For and Yield are called to capture the pattern variable when MaintainsVariableSpace is used.

Certain properties on the CustomOperationAttribute introduce join-like operators. The following example shows how to use the IsLikeJoin property.

 type SimpleSequenceBuilder() =     member __.For (source : seq<'a>, body : 'a -> seq<'b>) =            seq { for v in source do yield! body v }     member __.Yield (item:'a) : seq<'a> = seq { yield item }       []     member __.Merge (src1:seq<'a>, src2:seq<'a>, ks1, ks2, ret) =               seq { for a in src1 do                     for b in src2 do                     if ks1 a = ks2 b then yield((ret a ) b)               }   let myseq = SimpleSequenceBuilder()

IsLikeJoin indicates that the custom operation is similar to a join in a sequence computation; that is, it supports two inputs and a correlation constraint.

The expression

myseq {

for i in 1 .. 10 do

merge j in [5 .. 15] whenever (i = j)

yield j

}

translates to

let b = myseq

b.For(

b.Merge([1..10], [5..15],

fun i -> i, fun j -> j,

fun i -> fun j -> (i,j)),

fun j -> b.Yield (j))

This translation implicitly places type constraints on the expected form of the builder methods. For example, for the async builder found in the Microsoft.FSharp.Control library, the translation phase corresponds to implementing a builder of a type that has the following member signatures:

type AsyncBuilder with

member For: seq<'T> * ('T -> Async<unit>) -> Async<unit>

member Zero : unit -> Async<unit>

member Combine : Async<unit> * Async<'T> -> Async<'T>

member While : (unit -> bool) * Async<unit> -> Async<unit>

member Return : 'T -> Async<'T>

member Delay : (unit -> Async<'T>) -> Async<'T>

member Using: 'T * ('T -> Async<'U>) -> Async<'U>

when 'U :> System.IDisposable

member Bind: Async<'T> * ('T -> Async<'U>) -> Async<'U>

member TryFinally: Async<'T> * (unit -> unit) -> Async<'T>

member TryWith: Async<'T> * (exn -> Async<'T>) -> Async<'T>

The following example shows a common approach to implementing a new computation expression builder for a monad. The example uses computation expressions to define computations that can be partially run by executing them step-by-step, for example, up to a time limit.

/// Computations that can cooperatively yield by returning a continuation

type Eventually<'T> =

| Done of 'T

| NotYetDone of (unit -> Eventually<'T>)

[<CompilationRepresentation(CompilationRepresentationFlags.ModuleSuffix)>]

module Eventually =

/// The bind for the computations. Stitch 'k' on to the end of the computation.

/// Note combinators like this are usually written in the reverse way,

/// for example,

///     e |> bind k

let rec bind k e =

match e with

| Done x -> NotYetDone (fun () -> k x)

| NotYetDone work -> NotYetDone (fun () -> bind k (work()))

/// The return for the computations.

let result x = Done x

type OkOrException<'T> =

| Ok of 'T

| Exception of System.Exception

/// The catch for the computations. Stitch try/with throughout

/// the computation and return the overall result as an OkOrException.

let rec catch e =

match e with

| Done x -> result (Ok x)

| NotYetDone work ->

NotYetDone (fun () ->

let res = try Ok(work()) with | e -> Exception e

match res with

| Ok cont -> catch cont // note, a tailcall

| Exception e -> result (Exception e))

/// The delay operator.

let delay f = NotYetDone (fun () -> f())

/// The stepping action for the computations.

let step c =

match c with

| Done _ -> c

| NotYetDone f -> f ()

// The rest of the operations are boilerplate.

/// The tryFinally operator.

/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result", "catch" and "bind".

let tryFinally e compensation =

catch (e)

|> bind (fun res ->  compensation();

match res with

| Ok v -> result v

| Exception e -> raise e)

/// The tryWith operator.

/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result", "catch" and "bind".

let tryWith e handler =

catch e

|> bind (function Ok v -> result v | Exception e -> handler e)

/// The whileLoop operator.

/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result" and "bind".

let rec whileLoop gd body =

if gd() then body |> bind (fun v -> whileLoop gd body)

else result ()

/// The sequential composition operator

/// This is boilerplate in terms of "result" and "bind".

let combine e1 e2 =

e1 |> bind (fun () -> e2)

/// The using operator.

let using (resource: #System.IDisposable) f =

tryFinally (f resource) (fun () -> resource.Dispose())

/// The forLoop operator.

/// This is boilerplate in terms of "catch", "result" and "bind".

let forLoop (e:seq<_>) f =

let ie = e.GetEnumerator()

tryFinally (whileLoop (fun () -> ie.MoveNext())

(delay (fun () -> let v = ie.Current in f v)))

(fun () -> ie.Dispose())

// Give the mapping for F# computation expressions.

type EventuallyBuilder() =

member x.Bind(e,k)                  = Eventually.bind k e

member x.Return(v)                  = Eventually.result v

member x.ReturnFrom(v)              = v

member x.Combine(e1,e2)             = Eventually.combine e1 e2

member x.Delay(f)                   = Eventually.delay f

member x.Zero()                     = Eventually.result ()

member x.TryWith(e,handler)         = Eventually.tryWith e handler

member x.TryFinally(e,compensation) = Eventually.tryFinally e compensation

member x.For(e:seq<_>,f)            = Eventually.forLoop e f

member x.Using(resource,e)          = Eventually.using resource e

let eventually = new EventuallyBuilder()

After the computations are defined, they can be built by using eventually { ... }:

let comp =

eventually { for x in 1 .. 2 do

printfn " x = %d" x

return 3 + 4 }

These computations can now be stepped. For example:

let step x = Eventually.step x

comp |> step

// returns "NotYetDone <closure>"

comp |> step |> step

// prints "x = 1"

// returns "NotYetDone <closure>"

comp |> step |> step |> step |> step |> step |> step

// prints "x = 1"

// prints "x = 2"

// returns “NotYetDone <closure>”

comp |> step |> step |> step |> step |> step |> step |> step |> step

// prints "x = 1"

// prints "x = 2"

// returns "Done 7"

### 6.3.11Sequence Expressions

An expression in one of the following forms is a sequence expression:

seq { comp-expr }

seq { short-comp-expr }

For example:

seq { for x in [ 1; 2; 3 ] do for y in [5; 6] do yield x + y }

seq { for x in [ 1; 2; 3 ] do yield x + x }

seq { for x in [ 1; 2; 3 ] -> x + x }

Logically speaking, sequence expressions can be thought of as computation expressions with a builder of type Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.SeqBuilder. This type can be considered to be defined as follows:

type SeqBuilder() =

member x.Yield (v) = Seq.singleton v

member x.YieldFrom (s:seq<_>) = s

member x.Return (():unit) = Seq.empty

member x.Combine (xs1,xs2) = Seq.append xs1 xs2

member x.For (xs,g) = Seq.collect f xs

member x.While (guard,body) = SequenceExpressionHelpers.EnumerateWhile guard body

member x.TryFinally (xs,compensation) =

SequenceExpressionHelpers.EnumerateThenFinally xs compensation

member x.Using (resource,xs) = SequenceExpressionHelpers.EnumerateUsing resource xs

However, this builder type is not actually defined in the F# library. Instead, sequence expressions are elaborated directly as follows:

{| yield expr |}                  à Seq.singleton expr

{| yield! expr |}                          à expr

{| expr1 ; expr2 |}                à Seq.append {| expr1 |} {| expr2 |}

{| for pat in expr1 -> expr2 |}    à Seq.map (fun pat -> {| expr2 |}) expr1

{| for pat in expr1 do expr2 |}    à Seq.collect (fun pat -> {| expr2 |}) expr1

{| while expr1 do expr2 |}         à RuntimeHelpers.EnumerateWhile

(fun () -> expr1)

{| expr2 |}

{| try expr1 finally expr2 |}      à RuntimeHelpers.EnumerateThenFinally

(| expr1 |}

(fun () -> expr2)

{| use v = expr1 in expr2 |}       à let v = expr1 in

RuntimeHelpers.EnumerateUsing v {| expr2 |}

{| let v = expr1 in expr2 |}       à let v = expr1 in {| expr2 |}

{| match expr with pati -> expri |}         à.match expr with pati -> {| cexpri |}

{| expr1 |}                       à expr1 ; Seq.empty

{| if expr then expr0 |}C          à if expr then {| expr0 |}C else Seq.empty

{| if expr then expr0 else expr1 |} à if expr then {| expr0 |}C else {| expr1 |}C

Here the use of Seq and RuntimeHelpers refers to the corresponding functions in Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq and Microsoft.FSharp.Core.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers respectively. This means that a sequence expression generates an object of type System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<ty> for some type ty. Such an object has a GetEnumerator method that returns a System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerator<ty> whose MoveNext, Current and Dispose methods implement an on-demand evaluation of the sequence expressions.

### 6.3.12Range Expressions

Expressions of the following forms are range expressions.

{ e1 .. e2

{ e1 .. e2 .. e3 }

seq { e1 .. e2

seq { e1 .. e2 .. e3 }

Range expressions generate sequences over a specified range. For example:

seq { 1 .. 10 } // 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10

seq { 1 .. 2 .. 10 } // 1; 3; 5; 7; 9

Range expressions involving expr1 .. expr2 are translated to uses of the (..) operator, and those involving expr1 .. expr1 .. expr3 are translated to uses of the (.. ..) operator:

seq { e1 .. e2 }       (..) e1 e2

seq { e1 .. e2 .. e3 } (.. ..) e1 e2 e3

The default definition of these operators is in Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators. The (..) operator generates an IEnumerable<_> for the range of values between the start (expr1) and finish (expr2) values, using an increment of 1 (as defined by Microsoft.FSharp.Core.LanguagePrimitives.GenericOne). The (.. ..) operator generates an IEnumerable<_> for the range of values between the start (expr1) and finish (expr3) values, using an increment of expr2.

The seq keyword, which denotes the type of computation expression, can be omitted for simple range expressions, but this is not recommended and might be deprecated in a future release. It is always preferable to explicitly mark the type of a computation expression.

Range expressions also occur as part of the translated form of expressions, including the following:

·         expr1 .. expr2 ]

·         [| expr1 .. expr2 |]

·         for var in expr1 .. expr2 do expr3

A sequence iteration expression of the form for var in expr1 .. expr2 do expr3 done is sometimes elaborated as a simple for loop-expression (§6.5.7).

### 6.3.13Lists via Sequence Expressions

A list sequence expression is an expression in one of the following forms

[ comp-expr ]

[ short-comp-expr ]

[ range-expr ]

In all cases [ cexpr ] elaborates to Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq.toList(seq { cexpr }).

For example:

let x2 = [ yield 1; yield 2 ]

let x3 = [ yield 1

if System.DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek = System.DayOfWeek.Monday then

yield 2]

### 6.3.14Arrays Sequence Expressions

An expression in one of the following forms is an array sequence expression:

[| comp-expr |]

[| short-comp-expr |]

[| range-expr |]

In all cases [| cexpr |] elaborates to Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq.toArray(seq { cexpr }).

For example:

let x2 = [| yield 1; yield 2 |]

let x3 = [| yield 1

if System.DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek = System.DayOfWeek.Monday then

yield 2 |]

### 6.3.15Null Expressions

An expression in the form null is a null expression. A null expression imposes a nullness constraint (§5.2.2, §5.4.8) on the initial type of the expression. The constraint ensures that the type directly supports the value null.

Null expressions are a primitive elaborated form.

### 6.3.16'printf' Formats

Format strings are strings with % markers as format placeholders. Format strings are analyzed at compile time and annotated with static and runtime type information as a result of that analysis. They are typically used with one of the functions printf, fprintf, sprintf, or bprintf in the Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Printf module. Format strings receive special treatment in order to type check uses of these functions more precisely.

More concretely, a constant string is interpreted as a printf-style format string if it is expected to have the type Microsoft.FSharp.Core.PrintfFormat<'Printer,'State,'Residue,'Result,'Tuple>. The string is statically analyzed to resolve the generic parameters of the PrintfFormat type, of which 'Printer and 'Tuple are the most interesting:

·         'Printer is the function type that is generated by applying a printf-like function to the format string.

·         'Tuple is the type of the tuple of values that are generated by treating the string as a generator (for example, when the format string is used with a function similar to scanf in other languages).

A format placeholder has the following shape:

%[flags][width][.precision][type]

where:

flags

Are 0, -, +, and the space character. The # flag is invalid and results in a compile-time error.

width

Is an integer that specifies the minimum number of characters in the result.

precision

Is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point for a floating-point type. .

type

Is as shown in the following table.

 Placeholder string Type %b bool %s string %c char %d, %i One of the basic integer types: byte, sbyte, int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, uint64, nativeint, or unativeint %u Basic integer type formatted as an unsigned integer %x Basic integer type formatted as an unsigned hexadecimal integer with lowercase letters a through f. %X Basic integer type formatted as an unsigned hexadecimal integer with uppercase letters A through F. %o Basic integer type formatted as an unsigned octal integer. %e, %E, %f, %F, %g, %G float or float32 %M System.Decimal %O System.Object %A Fresh variable type 'T %a Formatter of type 'State -> 'T -> 'Residue for a fresh variable type 'T %t Formatter of type 'State -> 'Residue

For example, the format string "%s %d %s" is given the type PrintfFormat<(string -> int -> string -> 'd), 'b, 'c, 'd,(string * int * string)> for fresh variable types 'b, 'c, 'd. Applying printf to it yields a function of type string -> int -> string -> unit.

## 6.4     Application Expressions

### 6.4.1     Basic Application Expressions

Application expressions involve variable names, dot-notation lookups, function applications, method applications, type applications, and item lookups, as shown in the following table.

 Expression Description long-ident-or-op Long-ident lookup expression expr '.' long-ident-or-op Dot lookup expression expr expr Function or member application expression expr(expr) High precedence function or member application expression expr Type application expression expr< > Type application expression with an empty type list type expr Simple object expression

The following are examples of application expressions:

System.Math.PI

System.Math.PI.ToString()

(3 + 4).ToString()

System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH").Length

System.Console.WriteLine("Hello World")

Application expressions may start with object construction expressions that do not include the new keyword:

System.Object()

System.Collections.Generic.List<int>(10)

System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair(3,"Three")

System.Object().GetType()

System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<int,int>(10).[1]

If the long-ident-or-op starts with the special pseudo-identifier keyword global, F# resolves the identifier with respect to the global namespace—that is, ignoring all open directives (see §14.2). For example:

global.System.Math.PI

is resolved to System.Math.PI ignoring all open directives.

The checking of application expressions is described in detail as an algorithm in §14.2. To check an application expression, the expression form is repeatedly decomposed into a lead expression expr and a list of projections projs through the use of Unqualified Lookup14.2.1). This in turn uses procedures such as Expression-Qualified Lookup and Method Application Resolution.

As described in §14.2, checking an application expression results in an elaborated expression that contains a series of lookups and method calls. The elaborated expression may include:

·         Uses of named values

·         Uses of union cases

·         Record constructions

·         Applications of functions

·         Applications of methods (including methods that access properties)

·         Applications of object constructors

·         Uses of fields, both static and instance

·         Uses of active pattern result elements

Additional constructs may be inserted when resolving method calls into simpler primitives:

·         The use of a method or value as a first-class function may result in a function expression.

For example, System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable elaborates to:
(fun v -> System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(v))
for some fresh variable v.

·         The use of post-hoc property setters results in the insertion of additional assignment and sequential execution expressions in the elaborated expression.

For example, new System.Windows.Forms.Form(Text="Text") elaborates to
let v = new System.Windows.Forms.Form() in v.set_Text("Text"); v
for some fresh variable
v.

·         The use of optional arguments results in the insertion of Some(_) and None data constructions in the elaborated expression.

For uses of active pattern results (see §10.2.4), for result i in an active pattern that has N possible results of types types, the elaborated expression form is a union case ChoiceNOfi of type Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Choice<types>.

### 6.4.2     Object Construction Expressions

An expression of the following form is an object construction expression:

new ty(e1 ... en)

An object construction expression constructs a new instance of a type, usually by calling a constructor method on the type. For example:

new System.Object()

new System.Collections.Generic.List<int>()

new System.Windows.Forms.Form (Text="Hello World")

new 'T()

The initial type of the expression is first asserted to be equal to ty. The type ty must not be an array, record, union or tuple type. If ty is a named class or struct type:

·         ty must not be abstract.

·         If ty is a struct type, n is 0, and ty does not have a constructor method that takes zero arguments, the expression elaborates to the default “zero-bit pattern” value for ty.

·         Otherwise, the type must have one or more accessible constructors. The overloading between these potential constructors is resolved and elaborated by using Method Application Resolution (see §14.4).

If ty is a delegate type the expression is a delegate implementation expression.

·         If the delegate type has an Invoke method that has the following signature
Invoke(ty1,...,tyn) -> rtyA,

then the overall expression must be in this form:

new ty(expr) where expr has type ty1 -> ... -> tyn -> rtyB

If type rtyA is a CLI void type, then rtyB is unit, otherwise it is rtyA.

·         If any of the types tyi is a byref-type then an explicit function expression must be specified. That is, the overall expression must be of the form new ty(fun pat1 ... patn -> exprbody).

If ty is a type variable:

·         There must be no arguments (that is, n = 0).

·         The type variable is constrained as follows:

ty : (new : unit -> ty)  -- CLI default constructor constraint

·         The expression elaborates to a call to Microsoft.FSharp.Core.LanguagePrimitives.IntrinsicFunctions.CreateInstance<ty>(), which in turn calls System.Activator.CreateInstance<ty>(), which in turn uses CLI reflection to find and call the null object constructor method for type ty. On return from this function, any exceptions are wrapped by using System.TargetInvocationException.

### 6.4.3     Operator Expressions

Operator expressions are specified in terms of their shallow syntactic translation to other constructs. The following translations are applied in order:

infix-or-prefix-op e1  → (~infix-or-prefix-op) e1

prefix-op e1            → (prefix-op) e1

e1 infix-op e2         (infix-op) e1 e2

Note: When an operator that may be used as either an infix or prefix operator is used in prefix position, a tilde character ~ is added to the name of the operator during the translation process.

These rules are applied after applying the rules for dynamic operators (§6.4.4).

The parenthesized operator name is then treated as an identifier and the standard rules for unqualified name resolution (§14.1) in expressions are applied. The expression may resolve to a specific definition of a user-defined or library-defined operator. For example:

let (+++) a b = (a,b)

3 +++ 4

In some cases, the operator name resolves to a standard definition of an operator from the F# library. For example, in the absence of an explicit definition of (+),

3 + 4

resolves to a use of the infix operator Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.(+).

Some operators that are defined in the F# library receive special treatment in this specification. In particular:

·         The &expr and &&expr address-of operators (§6.4.5)

·         The expr && expr and expr || expr shortcut control flow operators (§6.5.4)

·         The %expr and %%expr expression splice operators in quotations (§6.8.3)

·         The library-defined operators, such as +, -, *, /, %, **, <<<, >>>, &&&, |||, and ^^^17.2).

If the operator does not resolve to a user-defined or library-defined operator, the name resolution rules (§14.1) ensure that the operator resolves to an expression that implicitly uses a static member invocation expression (§6.4.8) that involves the types of the operands. This means that the effective behavior of an operator that is not defined in the F# library is to require a static member that has the same name as the operator, on the type of one of the operands of the operator. In the following code, the otherwise undefined operator --> resolves to the static member on the Receiver type, based on a type-directed resolution:

let r = Receiver "no message"

r <-- "Message One"

"Message Two" --> r

### 6.4.4     Dynamic Operator Expressions

Expressions of the following forms are dynamic operator expressions:

expr1 ? expr2

expr1 ? expr2 <- expr3

These expressions are defined by their syntactic translation:

expr ? ident                   → (?) expr "ident"

expr1 ? (expr2)                 → (?) expr1 expr2

expr1 ? ident <- expr2          → (?<-) expr1 "ident" expr2

expr1 ? (expr2) <- expr3         → (?<-) expr1 expr2 expr3

Here "ident" is a string literal that contains the text of ident.

Note: The F# core library FSharp.Core.dll does not define the (?) and (?<‑) operators. However, user code may define these operators. For example, it is common to define the operators to perform a dynamic lookup on the properties of an object by using reflection.

This syntactic translation applies regardless of the definition of the (?) and (?<-) operators. However, it does not apply to uses of the parenthesized operator names, as in the following:

(?) x y

Under default definitions, expressions of the following forms are address-of expressions, called byref-address-of expression and nativeptr-address-of expression, respectively:

&expr

&&expr

Such expressions take the address of a mutable local variable, byref-valued argument, field, array element, or static mutable global variable.

For &expr and &&expr , the initial type of the overall expression must be of the form byref<ty> and nativeptr<ty> respectively, and the expression expr is checked with initial type ty.

The overall expression is elaborated recursively by taking the address of the elaborated form of expr, written AddressOf(expr, DefinitelyMutates), defined in §6.9.4.

Use of these operators may result in unverifiable or invalid common intermediate language (CIL) code; when possible, a warning or error is generated. In general, their use is recommended only:

·         To pass addresses where byref or nativeptr parameters are expected.

·         To pass a byref parameter on to a subsequent function.

·         When required to interoperate with native code.

Addresses that are generated by the && operator must not be passed to functions that are in tail call position. The F# compiler does not check for this.

Direct uses of byref types, nativeptr types, or values in the Microsoft.FSharp.NativeInterop module may result in invalid or unverifiable CIL code. In particular, byref and nativeptr types may NOT be used within named types such as tuples or function types.

When calling an existing CLI signature that uses a CLI pointer type ty*, use a value of type nativeptr<ty>.

Note: The rules in this section apply to the following prefix operators, which are defined in the F# core library for use with one argument.

Microsoft.FSharp.Core.LanguagePrimitives.IntrinsicOperators.(~&)

Microsoft.FSharp.Core.LanguagePrimitives.IntrinsicOperators.(~&&)

Other uses of these operators are not permitted.

### 6.4.6     Lookup Expressions

Lookup expressions are specified by syntactic translation:

e1.[e2]                          e1.get_Item(e2)

e1.[e2, e3]                      e1.get_Item(e2, e3)

e1.[e2, e3, e4]                  e1.get_Item(e2, e3, e4)

e1.[e2, e3, e4, e5]               e1.get_Item(e2, e3, e4, e5)

e1.[e2] <- e3                    e1.set_Item(e2, e3)

e1.[e2, e3] <- e4                e1.set_Item(e2, e3, e4)

e1.[e2, e3, e4] <- e5             e1.set_Item(e2, e3, e4, e5)