How does Haskell's performance compare to other languages?

How does Haskell's performance compare to other languages?

Haskell is known for its strong performance in certain areas, especially in concurrent and parallel processing. Compared to languages like Python or Ruby, Haskell can be significantly faster due to its lazy evaluation and strong type system.

What specific benchmarks should I look at for comparison?

You should consider benchmarks like the Computer Language Benchmarks Game, which compares various languages on tasks like sorting and regex matching. Haskell often excels in tasks that benefit from its functional nature.

Are there any downsides to Haskell's performance?

Yes, while Haskell performs well in many scenarios, it can have overhead due to garbage collection and may not be the best choice for low-latency applications.

How does Haskell handle concurrency?

Haskell uses lightweight threads and software transactional memory, making it very efficient for concurrent programming. This allows developers to write concurrent code that is both safe and easy to reason about.