Skip to main content
ubuntuask.com

Back to all posts

How to Loop Through A List In Haskell?

Published on
7 min read
How to Loop Through A List In Haskell? image

Best Haskell Programming Books to Buy in October 2025

1 Learn Physics with Functional Programming: A Hands-on Guide to Exploring Physics with Haskell

Learn Physics with Functional Programming: A Hands-on Guide to Exploring Physics with Haskell

BUY & SAVE
$35.86 $49.99
Save 28%
Learn Physics with Functional Programming: A Hands-on Guide to Exploring Physics with Haskell
2 Programming in Haskell

Programming in Haskell

BUY & SAVE
$42.99 $47.00
Save 9%
Programming in Haskell
3 Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide

Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide

  • HIGH-QUALITY USED BOOKS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES.
  • THOROUGHLY INSPECTED FOR QUALITY AND READABILITY.
  • ECO-FRIENDLY CHOICE: REDUCE WASTE AND SAVE RESOURCES.
BUY & SAVE
$35.00 $44.95
Save 22%
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!: A Beginner's Guide
4 Real World Haskell

Real World Haskell

  • AFFORDABLE PRICES FOR QUALITY PRE-OWNED BOOKS!
  • THOROUGHLY VETTED FOR QUALITY AND GOOD CONDITION.
  • ECO-FRIENDLY CHOICE: REDUCE WASTE BY BUYING USED!
BUY & SAVE
$24.40 $49.99
Save 51%
Real World Haskell
5 Soar with Haskell: The ultimate beginners' guide to mastering functional programming from the ground up

Soar with Haskell: The ultimate beginners' guide to mastering functional programming from the ground up

BUY & SAVE
$45.99
Soar with Haskell: The ultimate beginners' guide to mastering functional programming from the ground up
6 Parallel and Concurrent Programming in Haskell: Techniques for Multicore and Multithreaded Programming

Parallel and Concurrent Programming in Haskell: Techniques for Multicore and Multithreaded Programming

BUY & SAVE
$25.83 $44.99
Save 43%
Parallel and Concurrent Programming in Haskell: Techniques for Multicore and Multithreaded Programming
7 Haskell in Depth

Haskell in Depth

BUY & SAVE
$57.13 $59.99
Save 5%
Haskell in Depth
8 Introduction to Computation: Haskell, Logic and Automata (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science)

Introduction to Computation: Haskell, Logic and Automata (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science)

BUY & SAVE
$26.40 $37.99
Save 31%
Introduction to Computation: Haskell, Logic and Automata (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science)
9 Learn Haskell by Example (Bookcamp)

Learn Haskell by Example (Bookcamp)

BUY & SAVE
$51.84 $59.99
Save 14%
Learn Haskell by Example (Bookcamp)
10 Get Programming with Haskell

Get Programming with Haskell

BUY & SAVE
$44.99
Get Programming with Haskell
+
ONE MORE?

In Haskell, looping through a list can be achieved using recursion or higher-order functions. Here are a few approaches:

  1. Recursion: One way to loop through a list is by defining a recursive function. The function can have a base case that handles an empty list and a recursive case that processes the head of the list and calls itself with the rest of the list. Here's an example of a recursive function that doubles all elements in a list:

doubleList :: [Int] -> [Int] doubleList [] = [] doubleList (x:xs) = (x * 2) : doubleList xs

  1. List comprehension: Haskell provides list comprehensions, which allow you to express looping constructs concisely. List comprehensions generally consist of generators, predicates, and output expressions. Here's an example that squares each element in a list using a list comprehension:

squareList :: [Int] -> [Int] squareList xs = [x*x | x <- xs]

  1. Higher-order functions: Haskell's higher-order functions like map, foldr, and foldl can be used to iterate over a list and perform some operation on each element. For example, map applies a function to each element of a list and returns a new list with the results. Here's an example using map to add 1 to each element in a list:

incrementList :: [Int] -> [Int] incrementList xs = map (+1) xs

These are just a few examples of how you can loop through a list in Haskell. Haskell's functional nature encourages using higher-order functions and recursion, which provide powerful ways to process lists.

Can you give an example of folding a list using a binary operator while looping through it in Haskell?

Certainly! Here's an example of folding a list using a binary operator f while looping through it in Haskell:

-- Define the binary operator add :: Int -> Int -> Int add x y = x + y

-- Implement the fold function using recursion foldLoop :: (a -> a -> a) -> [a] -> a foldLoop _ [] = error "Empty list" foldLoop _ [x] = x foldLoop f (x:xs) = f x (foldLoop f xs)

-- Usage main :: IO () main = do let myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] let sumResult = foldLoop add myList putStrLn $ "The sum of the list is: " ++ show sumResult

In this example, we define the binary operator add that takes two Int arguments and returns their sum. Then, the foldLoop function recursively loops through the list, applying the binary operator f on each element of the list. When the foldLoop function reaches the end of the list, it returns the accumulated result.

In the main function, we define a list myList containing [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and use the foldLoop function to calculate its sum. The result is then printed using putStrLn.

How do you filter elements based on a condition while looping through a list in Haskell?

In Haskell, you can filter elements based on a condition while looping through a list using the filter function. The filter function takes a predicate (a function that returns a boolean) and a list, and returns a new list containing only the elements for which the predicate returns True.

Here's the general syntax for using filter:

filter :: (a -> Bool) -> [a] -> [a]

Here's an example that demonstrates filtering elements from a list based on a condition:

-- A predicate function that checks if a number is even isEven :: Int -> Bool isEven x = x `mod` 2 == 0

-- Loop through a list, filter even numbers and create a new list filterEven :: [Int] -> [Int] filterEven numbers = filter isEven numbers

In this example, filter isEven numbers applies the isEven predicate function to each element of the numbers list, filtering out all the elements for which the isEven function returns False. It returns a new list containing only the even numbers.

You can then use the filterEven function to filter even numbers from a list:

main :: IO () main = do let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] let evenNumbers = filterEven numbers print evenNumbers

Output:

[2,4,6]

Note that filter is a higher-order function in Haskell, allowing you to pass any predicate function as an argument to filter elements based on different conditions.

Can you give an example of looping through a list and applying a IO action to each element in Haskell?

Certainly! In Haskell, you can use the mapM_ function to apply an IO action to each element of a list. Here's an example:

printList :: [Int] -> IO () printList xs = mapM_ print xs

main :: IO () main = do let myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] printList myList

In this example, the printList function takes a list of integers ([Int]) as input and applies the print IO action to each element in the list using mapM_. The mapM_ function takes two arguments: the action (print), and the list (xs). The underscore in mapM_ indicates that it discards the result of each individual IO action, which is appropriate for printing, where the side effect of the IO action is what matters.

In the main function, we define a list (myList) and pass it to the printList function. The printList function then prints each element of the list using the print action.

How do you concatenate multiple lists while looping through them in Haskell?

To concatenate multiple lists while looping through them in Haskell, you can use the foldr function with the (++) operator.

Here's an example:

concatenateLists :: [[a]] -> [a] concatenateLists = foldr (++) []

In the above code, the concatenateLists function takes a list of lists ([[a]]) and uses the foldr function with the (++) operator to concatenate them. The initial accumulator value is an empty list ([]).

You can then call the concatenateLists function with multiple lists as arguments:

list1 = [1, 2, 3] list2 = [4, 5, 6] list3 = [7, 8, 9]

concatenatedList = concatenateLists [list1, list2, list3]

In this example, the concatenatedList will contain [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

How do you handle empty lists while looping in Haskell?

When working with lists in Haskell, you can handle empty lists in loops by using pattern matching. Here are some ways to handle empty lists while looping in Haskell:

  1. Using case expression:

loop :: [a] -> b loop xs = case xs of [] -> -- handle the empty list case (x:xs') -> -- handle the non-empty list case

  1. Using if statement:

loop :: [a] -> b loop xs = if null xs then -- handle the empty list case else -- handle the non-empty list case

  1. Using guards:

loop :: [a] -> b loop [] = -- handle the empty list case loop (x:xs) = -- handle the non-empty list case

  1. Using a helper function:

loop :: [a] -> b loop xs = loopHelper xs where loopHelper [] = -- handle the empty list case loopHelper (x:xs') = -- handle the non-empty list case

These approaches allow you to differentiate between empty and non-empty lists within your loop, giving you control over how you handle each case.