Hi,

I've got another problem that I've worked at for a while and can't seem to
crack which should be pretty simple. ( I think)

I need to read a file and manipulate it's contents like a string. How does
one convert IO() to String?
If I could get this function to work I think I should be able to get to
concept.

The error from this is that lines can't take IO, it needs a string.

Thanks for any help

Sam

Hello!

One cannot (frankly, one *can* in some Haskell implementations with
a function called unsafePerformIO :: IO a -> a, but as the name indicates,
it is unsafe).

Because reading a file is an interaction with the outside world,
counting the number of lines in the file is, too. So
lineCount should have this type signature:
  lineCount :: FilePath -> IO Int
(lineCount maps a file path to an IO action yielding an Int when
it is eventually performed).

Because IO is a functor, you can lift a function of type
  a -> b
to type
  IO a -> IO b
with map.

So, you can define this:

lineCount :: FilePath -> IO Int
lineCount = map (length . lines) . readFile

Or you can use the do notation like this:

lineCount path = do
    content <- readFile path
    return $ (length . lines) content

The type signature is the same.

Regards,

Felix.