6.5.6. Field selectors

FieldSelectors
Since:

9.2.1

Status:

Included in GHC2024, GHC2021, Haskell2010, Haskell98

Make record field selector functions visible in expressions.

By default, the FieldSelectors extension is enabled, so defining a record datatype brings a selector function into scope for each field in the record. NoFieldSelectors negates this feature, making it possible to:

  • declare a top-level binding with the same name as a field, and

  • refer to this top-level binding unambiguously in expressions.

Field labels are still usable within record construction, updates and pattern matching.

For example, given a datatype definition

data Foo = MkFoo { bar :: Int, baz :: String }

The following will be available:

  1. the type constructor Foo;

  2. the data constructor MkFoo;

  3. the fields bar and baz for record construction, update, and pattern matching; and

  4. the selector functions bar :: Foo -> Int and baz :: Foo -> String.

If the NoFieldSelectors extension is enabled at the datatype definition site, items (1), (2), and (3) will still be available, but (4) will not. Correspondingly, it is permitted to define a top-level binding with the same name as a field, and using this name in an expression unambiguously refers to the non-field. For exmaple, the following is permitted:

data Foo = MkFoo { bar :: Int, baz :: String }
bar = ()  -- does not conflict with `bar` field
baz = bar -- unambiguously refers to `bar` the unit value, not the field

If you have multiple datatypes with the same field name, you need to enable DuplicateRecordFields to allow them to be declared simultaneously. It is never permitted for a single module to define multiple top-level bindings with the same name.

The DisambiguateRecordFields extension (implied by DuplicateRecordFields) is useful in conjunction with NoFieldSelectors, because it excludes non-fields from consideration when resolving field names in record construction, update and pattern matching.

6.5.6.1. Import and export of selector functions

Under FieldSelectors, these modules are equivalent:

module A (Foo(MkFoo, bar, baz)) where
  data Foo = MkFoo { bar :: Int, baz :: Int }

module B (Foo(MkFoo, bar), baz) where
  data Foo = MkFoo { bar :: Int, baz :: Int }

Under NoFieldSelectors, these two export statements are now different. The first one will export the field baz, but not the top-level binding baz, while the second one would export the top-level binding baz (if one were defined), but not the field baz.

Because of this change, using NoFieldSelectors and writing out selector functions explicitly is different to using FieldSelectors: in the former case the fields and functions must be exported separately. For example, here the selector functions are not exported:

{-# LANGUAGE NoFieldSelectors #-}
module M (Foo(MkFoo, bar, baz)) where
  data Foo = MkFoo { bar :: Int, baz :: Int }

  bar (MkFoo x _) = x
  baz (MkFoo _ x) = x

whereas here the selector functions are exported:

{-# LANGUAGE FieldSelectors #-}
module M (Foo(MkFoo, bar, baz)) where
  data Foo = MkFoo { bar :: Int, baz :: Int }

Wildcard exports will export the field labels, but will not export a top-level binding that happens to have the same name. In the examples above, exporting Foo(..) is (still) equivalent to exporting Foo(MkFoo, bar, baz).