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Mastering F#
Mastering F#

Mastering F#: A comprehensive and in-depth guide to writing functional programs using F#

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Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (2 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2016 264 pages 1st Edition
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Profile Icon Fahad Profile Icon García-Caro Núñez
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Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5 (2 Ratings)
Paperback Nov 2016 264 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€20.98 €29.99
Paperback
€36.99
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Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m
eBook
€20.98 €29.99
Paperback
€36.99
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Renews at €18.99p/m

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Mastering F#

Chapter 2. Functional Core with F#

As we have seen, F# is a functional-first language where we create functions and apply them. The result of the evaluation of one of these expressions is a value, and the execution of the program is the evaluation of all the expressions that comprise it.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • F# types such as primitives, tuples, records, and unions
  • Pattern matching
  • Equality and comparison
  • Reference cells and mutability

F# primitive types

The data types defined in F# are mapped directly with CLR. The following table defines the F# primitive types:

Name

F# type

Suffix

Example

Boolean

bool

true/false

Character

char

'A'

Text string

string

"Hello World!"

Short

int16

s

15s

Unsigned short

uint16

us

100us

Integer

int

(none)

123

Float/ Double

float

(optional) e

2., 1.01, 1.10e10

Unsigned integer

uint32

u

123u

Long

int64

L

9999L

Unsigned long

uint64

UL

9999UL

Single

float32 or single

f, (optional) e

1.0f, 1.01f, 1.01e10f

Decimal

decimal

m

123m

Big integer

bigint

I

123I

Signed byte

sbyte

y

3y

Unsigned byte

byte

uy

5uy

Native integer

nativeint

n

123n

Unsigned native integer

unnativeint

un

123un

The unit type

The unit type is used to indicate the absence of a specific value, but formally describes a set that possesses only a single...

Immutability, type declarations, and strong type inference

F# strongly adheres to immutability, meaning that the values declared in the program cannot be modified once they are constructed. Immutability also makes the code more readable because updates in the program state are more visible; thus it is easier to detect which operations affect the state. There are also F#-specific types, such as tuples, records, discriminated unions, and option types, which are immutable in their nature. They exhibit the following characteristics:

  • Being immutable
  • Values cannot be null
  • Built-in structural equality and comparison

F# has pattern matching as a special feature (from the ML family). We will go through pattern matching over predefined types and then discuss the different structural types and how to construct values with them. In further chapters, we will take a look at all the F#-specific types and ways to declare and use them.

Pattern matching

Pattern matching is defined by a match expression, which...

Summary

In this chapter, we went through some of the functional aspects of F#, such as immutable data structures, structural equality, and pattern matching. We also explored as how we can write a more imperative style when needed, such as keeping internal state with reference cells or mutable data structures. In the next chapter, you will learn more about other data structures that are very important in F#: collections.

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Key benefits

  • Learn how to manage, run, and automate your servers using Puppet
  • Explore how to use F# to develop large-scale applications quickly and simply, and become more productive in today’s age of cloud computing and multi-core programming
  • This easy-to-follow guide is packed with real-world examples that will jump-start you with F# development on the .NET platform

Description

F# is a multi-paradigm programming language that encompasses object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming language properties. Now adopted in a wide range of application areas and is supported both by industry-leading companies who provide professional tools and by an active open community, F# is rapidly gaining popularity as it emerges in digital music advertising, creating music-focused ads for Spotify, Pandora, Shazam, and anywhere on the web. This book will guide you through the basics and will then help you master F#. The book starts by explaining how to use F# with Visual Studio, file ordering, and the differences between F# and C# in terms of usage. It moves on to explain the functional core of F# such as data types, type declarations, immutability, strong type interference, pattern matching, records, F# data structures, sequence expressions, and lazy evaluation. Next, the book takes you through imperative and asynchronous programming, F# type providers, applications, and testing in F#. Finally, we look into using F# with distributed programming and using F# as a suitable language for data science. In short, this book will help you learn F# for real-world applications and increase your productivity with functional programming.

Who is this book for?

If you are a C# developer with a basic knowledge of F# and want to explore the functional programming paradigm further to master your F# skills, then this book is for you.

What you will learn

  • Understand the basics of F# and organize F# source code with Visual Studio
  • Work with F# data structures and create functional data structures in F# interoperate with C#
  • Build and use asynchronous programming patterns with F#
  • Create and use type providers that help perform data analysis from within Visual Studio
  • Develop applications with pure F# code in WPF or ASP.NET MVC
  • Find out how to perform distributed programming with ServiceBus or ZeroMQ
  • Visualize data with charts, and work with Excel and R language Type providers

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Nov 30, 2016
Length: 264 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784393434
Category :
Languages :

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Product Details

Publication date : Nov 30, 2016
Length: 264 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784393434
Category :
Languages :

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Table of Contents

10 Chapters
1. Getting Started in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Functional Core with F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Data Structures in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Imperative Programming in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Asynchronous Programming Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Type Providers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Web Programming in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Application Development in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Testing in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Distributed Programming in F# Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2.5
(2 Ratings)
5 star 0%
4 star 0%
3 star 50%
2 star 50%
1 star 0%
pw242 Jul 29, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 3
It's clear that the book was not written by a native English speaker. One can normally figure out what the author means, but I found it took extra work on top of the difficulty of understanding the underlying subject. Imagine reading a technical document that has come through Google translate. It's workable, but not ideal.The content is present, but there are better resources available to learn it.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Eik Christensen Feb 15, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
Reason for 2 stars is due to the formatting on kindle is really bad and with a programming language where the indentation of code is important, it does a poor job at making it work on a kindle. When going throu the code, i wasn't always sure if the code was belonging inside a function or outside the function.Other than that its a good reference book :-)
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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