How do Haskell monads help with error handling?

How do Haskell monads help with error handling?

Haskell monads provide a way to handle errors gracefully using types like Maybe and Either. They allow you to chain operations while managing potential failures.

Can you explain the Maybe monad with an example?

Sure! The Maybe monad represents a computation that might fail. For example, if you have a function that might return a value or nothing, you can use Maybe to handle that without crashing.

What about the Either monad? How is it different?

The Either monad is used for computations that can return a value or an error. Unlike Maybe, which only indicates success or failure, Either can provide an error message.

Can you show me a code snippet using Either?

Certainly! Here's a simple example:

safeDivide :: Double -> Double -> Either String Double
safeDivide _ 0 = Left "Cannot divide by zero"
safeDivide x y = Right (x / y)

This function returns an error message if division by zero is attempted.