Data.Maybe

Basic usage:

>>> maybe False odd (Just 3)
True

>>> maybe False odd Nothing
False

Read an integer from a string using readMaybe. If we succeed, return twice the integer; that is, apply (*2) to it. If instead we fail to parse an integer, return 0 by default:

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> maybe 0 (*2) (readMaybe "5")
10
>>> maybe 0 (*2) (readMaybe "")
0

Apply show to a Maybe Int. If we have Just n, we want to show the underlying Int n. But if we have Nothing, we return the empty string instead of (for example) "Nothing":

>>> maybe "" show (Just 5)
"5"
>>> maybe "" show Nothing
""

Basic usage:

>>> isJust (Just 3)
True

>>> isJust (Just ())
True

>>> isJust Nothing
False

Only the outer constructor is taken into consideration:

>>> isJust (Just Nothing)
True

Basic usage:

>>> isNothing (Just 3)
False

>>> isNothing (Just ())
False

>>> isNothing Nothing
True

Only the outer constructor is taken into consideration:

>>> isNothing (Just Nothing)
False

Basic usage:

>>> fromJust (Just 1)
1

>>> 2 * (fromJust (Just 10))
20

>>> 2 * (fromJust Nothing)
*** Exception: Maybe.fromJust: Nothing

Basic usage:

>>> fromMaybe "" (Just "Hello, World!")
"Hello, World!"

>>> fromMaybe "" Nothing
""

Read an integer from a string using readMaybe. If we fail to parse an integer, we want to return 0 by default:

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> fromMaybe 0 (readMaybe "5")
5
>>> fromMaybe 0 (readMaybe "")
0

Basic usage:

>>> listToMaybe []
Nothing

>>> listToMaybe [9]
Just 9

>>> listToMaybe [1,2,3]
Just 1

Composing maybeToList with listToMaybe should be the identity on singleton/empty lists:

>>> maybeToList $ listToMaybe [5]
[5]
>>> maybeToList $ listToMaybe []
[]

But not on lists with more than one element:

>>> maybeToList $ listToMaybe [1,2,3]
[1]

Basic usage:

>>> maybeToList (Just 7)
[7]

>>> maybeToList Nothing
[]

One can use maybeToList to avoid pattern matching when combined with a function that (safely) works on lists:

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> sum $ maybeToList (readMaybe "3")
3
>>> sum $ maybeToList (readMaybe "")
0

Basic usage:

>>> catMaybes [Just 1, Nothing, Just 3]
[1,3]

When constructing a list of Maybe values, catMaybes can be used to return all of the "success" results (if the list is the result of a map, then mapMaybe would be more appropriate):

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> [readMaybe x :: Maybe Int | x <- ["1", "Foo", "3"] ]
[Just 1,Nothing,Just 3]
>>> catMaybes $ [readMaybe x :: Maybe Int | x <- ["1", "Foo", "3"] ]
[1,3]

Using mapMaybe f x is a shortcut for catMaybes $ map f x in most cases:

>>> import Text.Read ( readMaybe )
>>> let readMaybeInt = readMaybe :: String -> Maybe Int
>>> mapMaybe readMaybeInt ["1", "Foo", "3"]
[1,3]
>>> catMaybes $ map readMaybeInt ["1", "Foo", "3"]
[1,3]

If we map the Just constructor, the entire list should be returned:

>>> mapMaybe Just [1,2,3]
[1,2,3]