Strings. In the F# language we use .NET string methods like IndexOf and ToLower. We call these methods within functional constructs.
String notes. With String.map we can apply a mapping to all characters in a string. A lambda expression is used. We can chain string manipulations together in a pipeline.
First example. This example adds three string functions. In uppercase() it calls ToUpper. In addGreeting and addComma it adds some surrounding text to a string.
Info In the "let result" statement we pipeline the three methods together with a name argument (with value "visitor").
Result The 3 functions handle the string in order and the resulting text has been processed as expected.
// Three string manipulation functions.
let uppercase (x : string) = x.ToUpper()
let addGreeting (x : string) = "Hi " + x
let addComma (x : string) = x + ","// Used to compute result.
let name = "visitor"// Apply three string functions with pipeline operator on the name.
let result =
name
|> uppercase
|> addGreeting
|> addComma
// Write result.
printfn "%A" result"Hi VISITOR,"
String.map. In F# we find a String.map function that changes each character in a string according to a function argument. We use upperMap here to uppercase only the letters "a" and "z."
Tip With String.map we have an effective way to translate strings. For something like a ROT13 transformation this is ideal.
let value = "abcxyz"// This function only uppercases 2 letters.
let upperMap = fun c ->
match c with
| 'a' -> 'A'
| 'x' -> 'X'
| _ -> c
// Apply our upperMap function with String.map.
let result = String.map upperMap value
printfn "%A" result"AbcXyz"
Methods. With F# we can invoke string methods from the .NET Framework. Some of the top methods are Split, IndexOf, Replace. These help us make programs that actually do things.
Parse, convert int. With Int32.TryParse, we can convert a string to an int. No custom parsing logic is needed. The F# language requires special syntax here.
Ciphers, ROT13. With the ROT13 cipher, we rotate (shift) characters 13 places. We learn character-based manipulation of strings. With F# we employ the String.map function.
Summary. We use strings in almost all programs, even functional F# ones. With the heavily-tested, fast string methods from .NET, we have a powerful string solution.
Dot Net Perls is a collection of pages with code examples, which are updated to stay current. Programming is an art, and it can be learned from examples.
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This page was last updated on Nov 21, 2023 (edit).