Make a typeclass instance automatically an instance of another

Question

What I'd like to achieve is that any instance of the following class (SampleSpace) should automatically be an instance of Show, because SampleSpace contains the whole interface necessary to create a String representation and hence all possible instances of the class would be virtually identical.

{-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances #-}
import Data.Ratio (Rational)                                               

class SampleSpace space where                                               
    events          :: Ord a => space a -> [a]                              
    member          :: Ord a => a -> space a -> Bool                        
    probability     :: Ord a => a -> space a -> Rational                    

instance (Ord a, Show a, SampleSpace s) => Show (s a) where                 
    show s = showLines $ events s                                           
        where                                                               
        showLines [] = ""                                                   
        showLines (e:es) = show e ++ ":   " ++ (show $ probability e s)
                                  ++ "\n" ++ showLines es

Since, as I found out already, while matching instance declarations GHC only looks at the head, and not at contraints, and so it believes Show (s a) is about Rational as well:

[1 of 1] Compiling Helpers.Probability ( Helpers/Probability.hs, interpreted )

Helpers/Probability.hs:21:49:
    Overlapping instances for Show Rational
      arising from a use of ‘show’
    Matching instances:
      instance (Integral a, Show a) => Show (GHC.Real.Ratio a)
        -- Defined in ‘GHC.Real’
      instance (Ord a, Show a, SampleSpace s) => Show (s a)
        -- Defined at Helpers/Probability.hs:17:10
    In the expression: show
    In the first argument of ‘(++)’, namely ‘(show $ probability e s)’
    In the second argument of ‘(++)’, namely
      ‘(show $ probability e s) ++ "" ++ showLines es

Question: is it possible (otherwise than by enabling overlapping instances) to make any instance of a typeclass automatically an instance of another too?

leftaroundabout leftaroundabout · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-21T14:46:56

tl;dr: don't do that, or, if you insist, use -XOverlappingInstances.

This is not what the Show class is there for. Show is for simply showing plain data, in a way that is actually Haskell code and can be used as such again, yielding the original value.
SampleSpace should perhaps not be a class in the first place. It seems to be basically the class of types that have something like Map a Rational associated with them. Why not just use that as a field in a plain data type?
Even if we accept the design... such a generic Show instance (or, indeed, generic instance for any single-parameter class) runs into problems when someone makes another instance for a concrete type – in the case of Show, there are of course already plenty of instances around. Then how should the compiler decide which of the two instances to use? GHC can do it, in fact: if you turn on the -XOverlappingInstances extension, it will select the more specific one (i.e. instance SampleSpace s => Show (s a) is “overridden” by any more specific instance), but really this isn't as trivial as may seem – what if somebody defined another such generic instance? Crucial to recall: Haskell type classes are always open, i.e. basically the compiler has to assume that all types could possibly in any class. Only when a specific instance is invoke will it actually need the proof for that, but it can never proove that a type isn't in some class.

What I'd recommend instead – since that Show instance doesn't merely show data, it should be made a different function. Either

showDistribution :: (SampleSpace s, Show a, Ord a) => s a -> String

or indeed

showDistribution :: (Show a, Ord a) => SampleSpace a -> String

where SampleSpace is a single concrete type, instead of a class.

Make a typeclass instance automatically an instance of another

1 Answers