Question

I have a function sideH which runs the risk of Prelude.head []. Hence, I have written it using Maybe, to avoid this:

sideH :: Residue -> Maybe (Atom, Atom)
sideH res
    -- Make sure the elements exist
    | nits /= [] && cars /= [] && oxys /= [] = Just (newH1, newH2)
    | otherwise = Nothing where
    ...

The above works exactly as expected, without error. Now, in the function which calls sideH (which is not a do construct), I must handle the situation that sideH returns Nothing:

callerFunc :: [Residue] -> Aromatic -> [(Double, Double)]
callerFunc [] _ = []
callerFunc (r:rs) aro
    -- Evaluate only if there is something to evaluate
    | newHs /= Nothing = (newH1Pos, newH2Pos)
    | otherwise = callerFunc rs aro where
    newHs = sideH r
    newH1Pos = atomPos $ fst $ fromJust newHs
    newH2Pos = atomPos $ snd $ fromJust newHs

If I try to evaluate newH1Pos or newH2Pos when newH = Nothing, it will fail because fromJust Nothing is an error. However, I expect this to never happen. I expect the callerFunc to evaluate newHs, which is either Just something or Nothing. If it is Nothing, then the callerFunc will go to its next step without ever evaluating newH1Pos or newH2Pos. This does not appear to be the case. I get an *** Exception: Maybe.fromJust: Nothing error exactly where I would expect newHs to return Nothing.

I was asked for more code. I am trying to come up with a minimum situation that reproduces the error, but in the mean time, here is the complete problematic callerFunc code.

-- Given a list of residues and an aromatic, find instances where there
--  is a Hydrogen bond between the aromatic and the Hydrogens on Gln or Asn
callerFunc :: [Residue] -> Aromatic -> [(Double, Double)]
callerFunc [] _ = []
callerFunc (r:rs) aro
    -- GLN or ASN case
    | fst delR <= 7.0 && (resName r == gln || resName r == asn) &&
        newHs /= Nothing && snd delR <= 6.0 = 
        [(snd delR, fst delR)] ++ hBondSFinder rs aro
    | otherwise = hBondSFinder rs aro where
    -- Sidechain identifying strings
    gln = B.pack [71, 76, 78]
    asn = B.pack [65, 83, 78]
    -- Get the location of the Hydrogens on the residue's sidechain
    newHs = sideH r
    newH1Pos = atomPos $ fst $ fromJust newHs
    newH2Pos = atomPos $ snd $ fromJust newHs
    -- Get the location of the Nitrogen on the mainchain of the Residue
    ats = resAtoms r
    backboneNPos = atomPos $ head $ getAtomName ats "N"
    hNVect1 = Line2P {lp1 = newH1Pos, lp2 = backboneNPos}
    hNVect2 = Line2P {lp1 = newH2Pos, lp2 = backboneNPos}
    interPoint1 = linePlaneInter (aroPlane aro) hNVect1
    interPoint2 = linePlaneInter (aroPlane aro) hNVect2
    delR = minimum [(interPoint1 `dist` newH1Pos, delr1), 
        (interPoint2 `dist` newH2Pos, delr2)]
    delr1 = interPoint1 `dist` (aroCenter aro)
    delr2 = interPoint2 `dist` (aroCenter aro)

I know this is a painful code dump. I am trying to whittle it down.

Answer 1

The answer to this question (asked in the comments) doesn’t fit in a comment: “I am not sure how I would use pattern matching, here, to remove these if statement.”.

Like this, for example, though there are still some code smells left that could likely be improved with some additional refactoring:

sideH :: Residue -> Maybe (Atom, Atom)
sideH res = case (nits, cars, oxys) of
    (_:_, _:_, _:_) -> Just (newH1, newH2)
    _ -> Nothing
    where
    ...

If you have flexible morals, you might try something like this:

sideH :: Residue -> Maybe (Atom, Atom)
sideH res = do
    _:_ <- return nits
    _:_ <- return cars
    _:_ <- return oxys
    return (newH1, newH2)
    where
    ...

Again, both of these code samples can likely be improved about tenfold if there’s a bit more context and code available to make recommendations for.