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Asked: 2026-05-20T19:25:58+00:00

Is there a way to programmatically get a list of instances of a type

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Is there a way to programmatically get a list of instances of a type class?

It strikes me that the compiler must know this information in order to type check and compile the code, so is there some way to tell the compiler: hey, you know those instances of that class, please put a list of them right here (as strings or whatever some representation of them).

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  1. Editorial Team

    You can generate the instances in scope for a given type class using Template Haskell.

    import Language.Haskell.TH

-- get a list of instances
getInstances :: Name -> Q [ClassInstance]
getInstances typ = do
  ClassI _ instances <- reify typ
  return instances

-- convert the list of instances into an Exp so they can be displayed in GHCi
showInstances :: Name -> Q Exp
showInstances typ = do
  ins <- getInstances typ
  return . LitE . stringL $ show ins

    Running this in GHCi:

    *Main> $(showInstances ''Num)
"[ClassInstance {ci_dfun = GHC.Num.$fNumInteger, ci_tvs = [], ci_cxt = [], ci_cls = GHC.Num.Num, ci_tys = [ConT GHC.Integer.Type.Integer]},ClassInstance {ci_dfun = GHC.Num.$fNumInt, ci_tvs = [], ci_cxt = [], ci_cls = GHC.Num.Num, ci_tys = [ConT GHC.Types.Int]},ClassInstance {ci_dfun = GHC.Float.$fNumFloat, ci_tvs = [], ci_cxt = [], ci_cls = GHC.Num.Num, ci_tys = [ConT GHC.Types.Float]},ClassInstance {ci_dfun = GHC.Float.$fNumDouble, ci_tvs = [], ci_cxt = [], ci_cls = GHC.Num.Num, ci_tys = [ConT GHC.Types.Double]}]"

    Another useful technique is showing all instances in scope for a given type class using GHCi.

    Prelude> :info Num
class (Eq a, Show a) => Num a where
  (+) :: a -> a -> a
  (*) :: a -> a -> a
  (-) :: a -> a -> a
  negate :: a -> a
  abs :: a -> a
  signum :: a -> a
  fromInteger :: Integer -> a
    -- Defined in GHC.Num
instance Num Integer -- Defined in GHC.Num
instance Num Int -- Defined in GHC.Num
instance Num Float -- Defined in GHC.Float
instance Num Double -- Defined in GHC.Float

    Edit: The important thing to know is that the compiler is only aware of type classes in scope in any given module (or at the ghci prompt, etc.). So if you call the showInstances TH function with no imports, you’ll only get instances from the Prelude. If you have other modules in scope, e.g. Data.Word, then you’ll see all those instances too.

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