let boolToInt3 b =
if b = true then
1
elif b = false
0
Not a big win over C# yet, but a few things to point out about the concise syntax: Indentation implies blocks. There is no 'return' keyword. This function is statically typed, you don't see types since the compiler infers the types.
As a novice F# programmer a trick you learn is pattern matching. Pattern matching is like a case statement, but it's an expression and it's really powerful. I'll go into more details on pattern matching in future posts. For now, notice the elegance of the below:
let boolToInt2 b =
match b with
| true -> 1
| false -> 0
Pattern matching is so useful to F# there is a syntax for creating a function of one parameter that only pattern matches, using that syntax, we define boolToInt in the final form of:
let boolToInt3 = function
| true -> 1
| false -> 0
As a C# programmer, I may actually just do it like this:
ReplyDeletepublic int BoolToInt (int b){
return (b ? 1 : 0);
}
Which isn't too shabby and almost as concise if you don't mind the short hand.
Well said Jake - ? is the conditional operator, which is 'abnormal' in C languages because it lets you do control flow in an expression as opposed to a statement (aka you can assign it to a variable).
ReplyDeleteIn C family languages there is no expression for the switch statement. Pattern matching is really a switch expression.
Holler if you'd like to see more F# posts.