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Haskell Style Guide

This is a short document describing the preferred coding style for this project. I've tried to cover the major areas of formatting and naming. When something isn't covered by this guide you should stay consistent with the code in the other modules.

Formatting

Line Length

Maximum line length is 80 characters.

Indentation

Tabs are illegal. Use spaces for indenting. Indent your code blocks with 4 spaces. Indent the where keyword two spaces to set it apart from the rest of the code and indent the definitions in a where clause 2 spaces. Some examples:

sayHello :: IO ()
sayHello = do
    name <- getLine
    putStrLn $ greeting name
  where
    greeting name = "Hello, " ++ name ++ "!"

filter :: (a -> Bool) -> [a] -> [a]
filter _ []     = []
filter p (x:xs)
    | p x       = x : filter p xs
    | otherwise = filter p xs

Blank Lines

One blank line between top-level definitions. No blank lines between type signatures and function definitions. Add one blank line between functions in a type class instance declaration if the function bodies are large. Use your judgement.

Whitespace

Surround binary operators with a single space on either side. Use your better judgement for the insertion of spaces around arithmetic operators but always be consistent about whitespace on either side of a binary operator. Don't insert a space after a lambda.

Data Declarations

Align the constructors in a data type definition. Example:

data Tree a = Branch !a !(Tree a) !(Tree a)
            | Leaf

For long type names the following formatting is also acceptable:

data HttpException
    = InvalidStatusCode Int
    | MissingContentHeader

Format records as follows:

data Person = Person
    { firstName :: !String  -- ^ First name
    , lastName  :: !String  -- ^ Last name
    , age       :: !Int     -- ^ Age
    } deriving (Eq, Show)

List Declarations

Align the elements in the list. Example:

exceptions =
    [ InvalidStatusCode
    , MissingContentHeader
    , InternalServerError
    ]

Optionally, you can skip the first newline. Use your judgement.

directions = [ North
             , East
             , South
             , West
             ]

Pragmas

Put pragmas immediately following the function they apply to. Example:

id :: a -> a
id x = x
{-# INLINE id #-}

In the case of data type definitions you must put the pragma before the type it applies to. Example:

data Array e = Array
    {-# UNPACK #-} !Int
    !ByteArray

Hanging Lambdas

You may or may not indent the code following a "hanging" lambda. Use your judgement. Some examples:

bar :: IO ()
bar = forM_ [1, 2, 3] $ \n -> do
          putStrLn "Here comes a number!"
          print n

foo :: IO ()
foo = alloca 10 $ \a ->
      alloca 20 $ \b ->
      cFunction a b

Export Lists

Format export lists as follows:

module Data.Set
    (
      -- * The @Set@ type
      Set
    , empty
    , singleton

      -- * Querying
    , member
    ) where

If-then-else clauses

Generally, guards and pattern matches should be preferred over if-then-else clauses, where possible. Short cases should usually be put on a single line (when line length allows it).

When writing non-monadic code (i.e. when not using do) and guards and pattern matches can't be used, you can align if-then-else clauses like you would normal expressions:

foo = if ...
      then ...
      else ...

Otherwise, you should be consistent with the 4-spaces indent rule, and the then and the else keyword should be aligned. Examples:

foo = do
    someCode
    if condition
        then someMoreCode
        else someAlternativeCode
foo = bar $ \qux -> if predicate qux
    then doSomethingSilly
    else someOtherCode

The same rule applies to nested do blocks:

foo = do
    instruction <- decodeInstruction
    skip <- load Memory.skip
    if skip == 0x0000
        then do
            execute instruction
            addCycles $ instructionCycles instruction
        else do
            store Memory.skip 0x0000
            addCycles 1

Case expressions

The alternatives in a case expression can be indented using either of the two following styles:

foobar = case something of
    Just j  -> foo
    Nothing -> bar

or as

foobar = case something of
             Just j  -> foo
             Nothing -> bar

Align the -> arrows when it helps readability.

Imports

Imports should be grouped in the following order:

  1. standard library imports
  2. related third party imports
  3. local application/library specific imports

Put a blank line between each group of imports. The imports in each group should be sorted alphabetically, by module name.

Always use explicit import lists or qualified imports for standard and third party libraries. This makes the code more robust against changes in these libraries. Exception: The Prelude.

Comments

Punctuation

Write proper sentences; start with a capital letter and use proper punctuation.

Top-Level Definitions

Comment every top level function (particularly exported functions), and provide a type signature; use Haddock syntax in the comments. Comment every exported data type. Function example:

-- | Send a message on a socket.  The socket must be in a connected
-- state.  Returns the number of bytes sent.  Applications are
-- responsible for ensuring that all data has been sent.
send :: Socket      -- ^ Connected socket
     -> ByteString  -- ^ Data to send
     -> IO Int      -- ^ Bytes sent

For functions the documentation should give enough information to apply the function without looking at the function's definition.

Record example:

-- | Bla bla bla.
data Person = Person
    { age  :: !Int     -- ^ Age
    , name :: !String  -- ^ First name
    }

For fields that require longer comments format them like so:

data Record = Record
    { -- | This is a very very very long comment that is split over
      -- multiple lines.
      field1 :: !Text

      -- | This is a second very very very long comment that is split
      -- over multiple lines.
    , field2 :: !Int
    }

End-of-Line Comments

Separate end-of-line comments from the code using 2 spaces. Align comments for data type definitions. Some examples:

data Parser = Parser
    !Int         -- Current position
    !ByteString  -- Remaining input

foo :: Int -> Int
foo n = salt * 32 + 9
  where
    salt = 453645243  -- Magic hash salt.

Links

Use in-line links economically. You are encouraged to add links for API names. It is not necessary to add links for all API names in a Haddock comment. We therefore recommend adding a link to an API name if:

  • The user might actually want to click on it for more information (in your judgment), and

  • Only for the first occurrence of each API name in the comment (don't bother repeating a link)

Naming

Use camel case (e.g. functionName) when naming functions and upper camel case (e.g. DataType) when naming data types.

For readability reasons, don't capitalize all letters when using an abbreviation. For example, write HttpServer instead of HTTPServer. Exception: Two letter abbreviations, e.g. IO.

Modules

Use singular when naming modules e.g. use Data.Map and Data.ByteString.Internal instead of Data.Maps and Data.ByteString.Internals.

Dealing with laziness

By default, use strict data types and lazy functions.

Data types

Constructor fields should be strict, unless there's an explicit reason to make them lazy. This avoids many common pitfalls caused by too much laziness and reduces the number of brain cycles the programmer has to spend thinking about evaluation order.

-- Good
data Point = Point
    { pointX :: !Double  -- ^ X coordinate
    , pointY :: !Double  -- ^ Y coordinate
    }
-- Bad
data Point = Point
    { pointX :: Double  -- ^ X coordinate
    , pointY :: Double  -- ^ Y coordinate
    }

Additionally, unpacking simple fields often improves performance and reduces memory usage:

data Point = Point
    { pointX :: {-# UNPACK #-} !Double  -- ^ X coordinate
    , pointY :: {-# UNPACK #-} !Double  -- ^ Y coordinate
    }

As an alternative to the UNPACK pragma, you can put

{-# OPTIONS_GHC -funbox-strict-fields #-}

at the top of the file. Including this flag in the file itself instead of e.g. in the Cabal file is preferable as the optimization will be applied even if someone compiles the file using other means (i.e. the optimization is attached to the source code it belongs to).

Note that -funbox-strict-fields applies to all strict fields, not just small fields (e.g. Double or Int). If you're using GHC 7.4 or later you can use NOUNPACK to selectively opt-out for the unpacking enabled by -funbox-strict-fields.

Functions

Have function arguments be lazy unless you explicitly need them to be strict.

The most common case when you need strict function arguments is in recursion with an accumulator:

mysum :: [Int] -> Int
mysum = go 0
  where
    go !acc []    = acc
    go acc (x:xs) = go (acc + x) xs

Misc

Point-free style

Avoid over-using point-free style. For example, this is hard to read:

-- Bad:
f = (g .) . h

Warnings

Code should be compilable with -Wall -Werror. There should be no warnings.