The Book of F#: Breaking Free with Managed Functional Programming

Foreword....17 Preface....21 Acknowledgments....23 Introduction....25 Whom Is This Book For?....26 How Is This Book Organized?....26 Additional Resources....27 Chapter 1: Meet F#....29 F# in Visual Studio....30 Project Templates....30 Project Organization....32 Significance of Whitespace....33 Grouping Constructs....34 Namespaces....34 Modules....35 Expressions Are Everywhere....36 Application Entry Point....37 Implicit Return Values....37 Your First F# Program....38 Summary....40 Chapter 2: F# Interactive....41 Running F# Interactive....41 F# Interactive Output....43 The it Identifier....43 Playing in the Sandbox....43 #help....44 #quit....44 #load....44 #r....45 #I....45 #time....45 Scripting....46 F# Interactive Options....48 --load....48 --use....49 --reference....49 --lib....49 --define....49 --exec....50 --....50 --quiet....50 --optimize....51 --tailcalls....51 Summary....51 Chapter 3: Fundamentals....53 Immutability and Side Effects....54 Functional Purity....55 Bindings....56 let Bindings....56 use Bindings....58 do Bindings....61 Identifier Naming....61 Core Data Types....61 Boolean Values and Operators....62 Numeric Types....62 Characters....65 Strings....65 Type Inference....67 Nullability....69 Options....69 Unit Type....70 Enumerations....71 Flags Enumerations....71 Reconstructing Enumeration Values....73 Flow Control....73 Looping....73 Branching....75 Generics....76 Automatic Generalization....77 Explicit Generalization....78 Flexible Types....80 Wildcard Pattern....80 Statically Resolved Type Parameters....80 When Things Go Wrong....81 Handling Exceptions....81 Raising Exceptions....83 Custom Exceptions....84 String Formatting....86 Type Abbreviations....87 Comments....87 End-of-Line Comments....88 Block Comments....88 XML Documentation....88 Summary....90 Chapter 4: Staying Objective....91 Classes....92 Constructors....92 Fields....96 Properties....97 Methods....101 Events....105 Structures....108 Inheritance....109 Casting....110 Overriding Members....111 Abstract Classes....112 Abstract Members....113 Virtual Members....115 Sealed Classes....115 Static Members....116 Static Initializers....116 Static Fields....117 Static Properties....117 Static Methods....118 Mutually Recursive Types....119 Interfaces....119 Implementing Interfaces....120 Defining Interfaces....121 Custom Operators....122 Prefix Operators....122 Infix Operators....123 New Operators....124 Global Operators....124 Object Expressions....125 Type Extensions....127 Summary....128 Chapter 5: Let’s Get Functional....131 What Is Functional Programming?....132 Programming with Functions....132 Functions as Data....132 Interoperability Considerations....133 Currying....134 Partial Application....134 Pipelining....135 Function Composition....136 Recursive Functions....137 Tail-Call Recursion....138 Mutually Recursive Functions....139 Lambda Expressions....140 Closures....140 Functional Types....141 Tuples....141 Record Types....146 Discriminated Unions....150 Defining Discriminated Unions....151 Additional Members....157 Lazy Evaluation....158 Summary....160 Chapter 6: Going to Collections....161 Sequences....162 Creating Sequences....162 Working with Sequences....165 Arrays....170 Creating Arrays....170 Working with Arrays....172 Multidimensional Arrays....175 Jagged Arrays....176 Lists....177 Creating Lists....177 Working with Lists....178 Sets....180 Creating Sets....180 Working with Sets....181 Maps....183 Creating Maps....184 Working with Maps....184 Converting Between Collection Types....185 Summary....186 Chapter 7: Patterns, Patterns, Everywhere....187 Match Expressions....187 Guard Clauses....188 Pattern-Matching Functions....189 Exhaustive Matching....190 Variable Patterns....191 The Wildcard Pattern....191 Matching Constant Values....192 Identifier Patterns....192 Matching Union Cases....192 Matching Literals....193 Matching Nulls....193 Matching Tuples....194 Matching Records....195 Matching Collections....196 Array Patterns....196 List Patterns....196 Cons Patterns....197 Matching by Type....197 Type-Annotated Patterns....197 Dynamic Type-Test Patterns....198 As Patterns....199 Combining Patterns with And....199 Combining Patterns with OR....200 Parentheses in Patterns....200 Active Patterns....201 Partial Active Patterns....202 Parameterized Active Patterns....204 Summary....204 Chapter 8: Measuring Up....205 Defining Measures....206 Measure Formulas....206 Applying Measures....207 Stripping Measures....208 Enforcing Measures....209 Ranges....210 Converting Between Measures....210 Static Conversion Factors....210 Static Conversion Functions....211 Generic Measures....212 Custom Measure-Aware Types....212 Summary....213 Chapter 9: Can I Quote You on That?....215 Comparing Expression Trees and Quoted Expressions....216 Composing Quoted Expressions....218 Quoted Literals....218 .NET Reflection....219 Manual Composition....220 Splicing Quoted Expressions....222 Decomposing Quoted Expressions....222 Parsing Quoted Expressions....223 Substituting Reflection....225 Summary....227 Chapter 10: Show Me the Data....229 Query Expressions....229 Basic Querying....231 Filtering Data....232 Accessing Individual Items....235 Sorting Results....237 Grouping....238 Paginating....239 Aggregating Data....241 Detecting Items....242 Joining Multiple Data Sources....243 Extending Query Expressions....247 Type Providers....249 Available Type Providers....250 Using Type Providers....251 Example: Accessing an OData Service....252 Example: Parsing a String with RegexProvider....254 Summary....256 Chapter 11: Asynchronous and Parallel Programming....257 Task Parallel Library....258 Potential Parallelism....259 Data Parallelism....259 Task Parallelism....262 Asynchronous Workflows....269 Creating and Starting Asynchronous Workflows....270 Cancelling Asynchronous Workflows....273 Exception Handling....275 Asynchronous Workflows and the Task Parallel Library....276 Agent-Based Programming....278 Getting Started....278 Scanning for Messages....279 Replying to Messages....280 Example: Agent-Based Calculator....281 Summary....283 Chapter 12: Computation Expressions....285 Anatomy of a Computation Expression....286 Example: FizzBuzz....289 Example: Building Strings....292 Summary....297 Index....299