Question

I have such code:

Prelude> let n = [1,2,3,4]
Prelude> n
[1,2,3,4]
Prelude> 0:n
[0,1,2,3,4]
Prelude> let n = 0:n

And when I type in Haskell interpreter after upper:

Prelude> n

I’m getting the infinite result:

[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

And where printing ” 0, ” is infinite.

Why do I get such result?
Is there some recursive stuff, and why/how does it work in interpreater level?
Could I catch stack overflow, which such stuff on GHCi or not?

Thanks,
Best Regards!

Answer 1

What Josh is saying is that you definition of n expands as:

0:n.  -- note n still equals 0:n, just like you said
0:0:n. -- note n _still_ equals 0:n
0:0:0:n
...