If you come from an OOP universe, then it probably helps to think of a module as analogous to a static class. Similar to .NET static classes, OCaml module have constructors; unlike .NET, OCaml modules can accept parameters in their constructors. A functor is a scary sounding name for the object you pass into the module constructor.
So using the canonical example of a binary tree, we'd normally write it in F# like this:
type 'a tree =
| Nil
| Node of 'a tree * 'a * 'a tree
module Tree =
let rec insert v = function
| Nil -> Node(Nil, v, Nil)
| Node(l, x, r) ->
if v < x then Node(insert v l, x, r)
elif v > x then Node(l, x, insert v r)
else Node(l, x, r)
Fine and dandy. But how does F# know how to compare two objects of type 'a using the < and > operators?
Behind the scenes, its doing something like this:
> let gt x y = x > y;;
val gt : 'a -> 'a -> bool when 'a : comparison
Alright, well what if you have an object of type Person which doesn't implement that particular interface? What if you wanted to define the sorting function on the fly? One approach is just to pass in the comparer as follows:
let rec insert comparer v = function
| Nil -> Node(Nil, v, Nil)
| Node(l, x, r) ->
if comparer v x = 1 then Node(insert v l, x, r)
elif comparer v x = -1 then Node(l, x, insert v r)
else Node(l, x, r)
It works, but if you're writing a module for tree operations with insert, lookup, removal, etc, you require clients to pass in an ordering function everytime they call anything.
If F# supported functors, its hypothetical syntax might look like this:
type 'a Comparer =
abstract Gt : 'a -> 'a -> bool
abstract Lt : 'a -> 'a -> bool
abstract Eq : 'a -> 'a -> bool
module Tree (comparer : 'a Comparer) =
let rec insert v = function
| Nil -> Node(Nil, v, Nil)
| Node(l, x, r) ->
if comparer.Lt v x then Node(insert v l, x, r)
elif comparer.Gt v x then Node(l, x, insert v r)
else Node(l, x, r)
Still in the hypothetical syntax, you'd create your module as such:
module PersonTree = Tree (new Comparer<Person>
{
member this.Lt x y = x.LastName < y.LastName
member this.Gt x y = x.LastName > y.LastName
member this.Eq x y = x.LastName = y.LastName
})
let people = PersonTree.insert 1 Nil
Unfortunately, F# doesn't support functors, so you have to fall back on some messy workarounds. For the scenario above, I would almost always store the "functor" in my data structure with some auxillary helper functions to make sure it gets copied around correctly:
type 'a Tree =
| Nil of 'a -> 'a -> int
| Node of 'a -> 'a -> int * 'a tree * 'a * 'a tree
module Tree =
let comparer = function
| Nil(f) -> f
| Node(f, _, _, _) -> f
let empty f = Nil(f)
let make (l, x, r) =
let f = comparer l
Node(f, l, x, r)
let rec insert v = function
| Nil(_) -> make(Nil, v, Nil)
| Node(f, l, x, r) ->
if f v x = -1 then make(insert v l, x, r)
elif f v x = 1 then make(l, x, insert v r)
else make(l, x, r)
let people = Tree.empty (function x y -> x.LastName.CompareTo(y.LastName))