What are monads in Haskell and how do they work?

What are monads in Haskell and how do they work?

Monads in Haskell are a design pattern used to handle side effects and manage computations. They encapsulate values along with a context, allowing for a functional approach to chaining operations.

Can you give me an example of a simple monad?

Sure! The Maybe monad is a common example. It represents a computation that might fail. For instance, it can either hold a value (Just x) or represent failure (Nothing).

How do I use the Maybe monad in my code?

You can use the Maybe monad by applying functions that return Maybe types. For example, you can use '>>=' to chain operations while handling potential failures.

What are the benefits of using monads?

Monads help manage side effects, improve code readability, and enable composition of functions in a clean and predictable way.