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Finer Points of F# Value Restriction

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One of distinguishing features of F#, compared with more conventional programming languages, is its powerful and pervasive type inference. Because of it, you almost never write type annotations in F# programs, typing less, reducing verbosity and getting fantastically elegant code in the end.

Type inference algorithms are a fascinating topic – there is an interesting and beautiful theory behind them. Today we will consider one interesting aspect of type inference in F# - it might give you a glimpse of what kind of challenges coming up with a good algorithm in this space presents, and hopefully explain away a stumbling block that F# developers occasionally encounter.

Our topic for today is value restriction. MSDN has a nice article on value restriction and automatic generalization in F# – and gives a very sound practical advice on what to do if you encounter value restriction in your program. However, MSDN article simply states matter-of-factly: “The compiler performs automatic generalization only on complete function definitions that have explicit arguments, and on simple immutable values” and does not provide much rationale behind this - rightly so, as MSDN is a reference source. This post is focused on the reasoning underlying value restriction – I will be answering the “why”, not the “what to do”.

A powerful feature of F# type inference is automatic generalization; you define a simple function, such as identity:

 let id x = x

There are no type annotations, but F# compiler deduces that id has type 'a -> 'a – given an argument of a certain type, it returns a result of the same type. Not particularly clever, but note that the F# compiler inferred an implicit generic type parameter 'a for function id.

We can combine id with List.map, itself a generic function:

 let listId l = List.map id l

(not a very useful function either, but useful code is not my goal today). F# compiler gives listId a correct type, 'a list -> 'a list; again, an automatic generalization takes place. Ok, but since List.map is a curried function, we might be tempted to strip argument l for left-hand side and right hand side of the definition:

 let listId = List.map id

But suddenly F# compiler complains:

 Program.fs(8,5): error FS0030: Value restriction. 
The value 'listId' has been inferred to have generic type
     val listId : ('_a list -> '_a list)
Either make the arguments to 'listId' explicit or,
if you do not intend for it to be generic, add a type annotation.

What is going on here?

The MSDN article suggests 4 ways to fix a “let” definition that is rejected due to value restriction:

  • Constrain a type to be nongeneric by adding an explicit type annotation to a value or parameter.
  • If the problem is using a nongeneralizable construct to define a generic function, such as a function composition or incompletely applied curried function arguments, try to rewrite the function as an ordinary function definition.
  • If the problem is an expression that is too complex to be generalized, make it into a function by adding an extra, unused parameter.
  • Add explicit generic type parameters. This option is rarely used.

Option 1 is not for us – we want listId to be generic.

Option 2 will get us back to an explicit parameter for list – and this is exactly the canonical way to define function like listId in F#.

Option 3 applies when you define something that is not a function; in our case it yields

 let listId () = List.map id

which is not compelling.

In real code, I would go with option 2 and keep the parameter explicit. But for the sake of learning, let us try the “rarely used” option 4:

 let listId<'T> : 'T list -> 'T list = List.map id

This compiles – and works as expected. On the face of it, it looks like a type inference failure - the compiler could not figure the type out, so we added a type annotation to fix it. But wait – compiler has almost inferred this type for us - error message actually mentions it! (With the weird '_a type variable). As if the compiler was dumbed down in this particular case – why?

For a very sound reason. To see it, let us consider another case of value restriction. This reference cell of list will not compile:

 let v = ref []
Program.fs(16,5): error FS0030: Value restriction. 
The value 'v' has been inferred to have generic type
    val v : '_a list ref    
Either define 'v' as a simple data term, make it a function with explicit arguments or, 
if you do not intend for it to be generic, add a type annotation.

Let us work it around by adding explicit type annotations:

 >let v<'T> : 'T list ref = ref []
val v<'T> : 'T list ref

Compiler is happy. Let us try to assign some value to v:

 > v := [1];;
val it : unit = ()

Surely we now have a list with a single element 1 in v?

 > let x : int list = !v;;
val x : int list = []

Oops - contents of v is an empty list! Where did our “[1]” go?

Here is what happened. Our assignment to v can actually be written like this:

 (v<int>):=[1]

Left-hand-side of this assignment is an application of v to type argument int . v itself is not a reference cell – it is a type function: given a type argument, it will produce a reference cell. Our assignment creates a fresh reference cell and assigns “[1]” to it. Likewise, if we make type arguments in dereferencing v explicit:

 let x = !(v<int>)

we see that v is applied to type argument int again, and produces a fresh reference cell containing an empty list.

To make all the talk about type functions concrete, let us examine the resulting IL. If we compile the definition of v, trusty Reflector will show us that v is:

 public static FSharpRef<FSharpList<T>> v<T>(){
        return Operators.Ref<FSharpList<T>>(FSharpList<T>.get_Empty());
}

What we perceived as a single value in F# is actually a generic method without parameters in the underlying IL. Both assignment and dereference of v will call the IL method, and this will indeed produce a fresh reference cell every time.

However, nothing in

 let v = ref []

suggests that the above behavior. v looks an ordinary value, and not a method or function at all. If this definition was allowed, F# developers will be in for a dangerous surprise later. That is why compiler stops inferring generic parameters here – value restriction saves you from unexpected behavior.

So when it is safe to automatically generalize? It is hard to argue precisely, but one simple answer suggests itself: generalization is safe if the expression on right-hand side of “let” both:

  1. is side-effect free (also known as pure)
  2. produces an immutable object

Indeed, the weird behavior of v stems from mutability of a reference cell; it is because the reference cell was mutable we cared whether we get back same or different cell from different accesses to v. If the right-hand-side of “let” is side-effect-free we know that the object we are getting is the equivalent object; since it is an immutable object, we do not care if we get a single copy or multiple copies of it between different invocations.

The two conditions above are hard – impossible - for the compiler to establish precisely. So F# compiler follows a simple and crude, but a very natural and understandable approximation: it only generalizes if it can infer purity and immutability from a syntactic structure of an expression on right-hand-side of a let. That is why:

 let listId = fun l -> List.map id

(which is what our original definition “let listId l = List.map id l” a syntactic sugar for) generalizes – right-hand-side is a closure creation; closure creations are side-effect-free and closures are immutable.

Same for discriminated unions:

 let q = None
let z = []

and immutable records:

 type 'a r = { x : 'a; y : int }
let r1 = { x = []; y = 1 }

r1 gets a type 'a list r. However if you try to initialize some of the fields of immutable record with a function call:

 let gen =
    let u = ref 0
    fun () -> u := !u + 1; !u
let f = { x = []; y = gen() }

f will not be generalized. In the above case gen is indeed a non-pure function; it might have been pure however, but compiler has no way of knowing, so it errs on a side of caution. For the same reason,

 let listId = List.map id

is not generalized – compiler does not know whether List.map is pure or not.

The expressions that are syntactically known to a compiler to be pure and produce immutable objects are called syntactic values. That is how value restriction got its name – automatic generalization on a right-hand-side of let definition is restricted to syntactic values. F# language specification gives a definition of a full set of syntactic values, but the above discussion gives you a good idea of what that set is – pure and producing immutable objects.

The problem we are solving here is not new – all compilers of languages belonging to ML family have been using value restriction in one form or another. One feature of F# that I think is unique however is that F# allows value restriction to be suppressed by explicit type annotation, and it is actually safe in F# semantics to do so.

When it can be useful? The canonical example is lazy and lazy list. Typical definition of lazy (let us pretend we do not have it in the language):

 type 'a LazyInner = Delayed of (unit -> 'a) | Value of 'a | Exception of exn
type 'a Lazy = 'a LazyInner ref
let create f = ref (Delayed f)
let force (l : 'a Lazy) = ...

is, on the face of it, full of side-effects; compiler does not know of a contract that exists between create and force. If we build a lazy list upon this definition of lazy in a standard way

 type 'a cell = Nil | CCons of 'a * 'a lazylist
and 'a lazylist = 'a cell Lazy

and try to define an empty lazy list:

 let empty = create (fun () -> Nil)

value restriction won’t let us; however generic uses of an empty lazy list is perfectly legitimate; we can declare this fact by making generic type parameter explicit:

 let empty<'T> : 'T lazylist = create (fun () -> Nil)

This is enough to get the definition of empty to compile; however if we try to use it

 let l = empty

compiler will complain again:

 File1.fs(12,5): error FS0030: Value restriction. 
The value 'l' has been inferred to have generic type
    val l : '_a lazylist    
Either define 'l' as a simple data term, 
make it a function with explicit arguments or, 
if you do not intend for it to be generic, add a type annotation.

Indeed, compiler knows that empty is a type function that not automatically generalizable – therefore it is not in a set of syntactic values. F# provides an escape hatch here though – we can put a [<GeneralizableValue>] attribute on a definition of empty:

 [<GeneralizableValue>]
let empty<'T> : 'T lazylist = create (fun () -> Nil)

This instructs the compiler to treat empty as a syntactic value, and “let l = empty” will compile

As a matter of fact, you might occasionally found the likes of our generic v useful:

 let v<'T> : 'T list ref = ref []

If you end up writing a type-parametrized function returning mutable objects or having side effects, please do sprinkle a RequiresExplicitTypeArguments attribute over it:

 [<RequiresExplicitTypeArguments>]
let v<'T> : 'T list ref = ref []

It does what it says on tin: now you cannot write “v := [1]”, only “v<int> := [1]”, and it is (somewhat) clearer what goes on.

If you got this far, I hope you now have a very solid understanding of F# value restriction, and you gained the power to control it if needed by means of explicit type annotations and GeneralizableValue attribute. With power comes responsibility however; MSDN article is quite right - those powers are rarely used in day-to-day F# programming. In my F# code, type functions appear only in cases similar to empty lazy lists from above – ground cases of data structures; in all other cases, I follow the MSDN article advice:

  • Constrain a type to be nongeneric by adding an explicit type annotation to a value or parameter.
  • If the problem is using a nongeneralizable construct to define a generic function, such as a function composition or incompletely applied curried function arguments, try to rewrite the function as an ordinary function definition.
  • If the problem is an expression that is too complex to be generalized, make it into a function by adding an extra, unused parameter.