F# record member evaluation

Question

Why is t.b evaluated on every call? And is there any way how to make it evaluate only once?

type test =
  { a: float }
  member x.b =
    printfn "oh no"
    x.a * 2.

let t = { a = 1. }
t.b
t.b

Answer 1

It's a property; you're basically calling the get_b() member.

If you want the effect to happen once with the constructor, you could use a class:

type Test(a:float) =
    // constructor
    let b =   // compute it once, store it in a field in the class
        printfn "oh no"
        a * 2.
    // properties
    member this.A = a
    member this.B = b

Answer 2

An alternative version of Brian's answer that will evaluate b at most once, but won't evaluate it at all if B is never used

type Test(a:float) =
    // constructor
    let b = lazy
                 printfn "oh no"
                 a * 2.
    // properties
    member this.A = a
    member this.B = b.Value

Answer 3

In response to your comments in Brian's post, you can fake copy-and-update record expressions using optional/named args. For example:

type Person(?person:Person, ?name, ?age) =

    let getExplicitOrCopiedArg arg argName copy =
        match arg, person with
        | Some(value), _ -> value
        | None, Some(p) -> copy(p)
        | None, None -> nullArg argName

    let name = getExplicitOrCopiedArg name "name" (fun p -> p.Name)
    let age = getExplicitOrCopiedArg age "age" (fun p -> p.Age)

    member x.Name = name
    member x.Age = age

let bill = new Person(name = "Bill", age = 20)
let olderBill = new Person(bill, age = 25)

printfn "Name: %s, Age: %d" bill.Name bill.Age
printfn "Name: %s, Age: %d" olderBill.Name olderBill.Age