Option of a type #
THIS FILE IS SYNCHRONIZED WITH MATHLIB4. Any changes to this file require a corresponding PR to mathlib4.
This file develops the basic theory of option types.
If α is a type, then option α can be understood as the type with one more element than α.
option α has terms some a, where a : α, and none, which is the added element.
This is useful in multiple ways:
- It is the prototype of addition of terms to a type. See for example
with_bot αwhich usesnoneas an element smaller than all others. - It can be used to define failsafe partial functions, which return
some the_result_we_expectif we can findthe_result_we_expect, andnoneif there is no meaningful result. This forces any subsequent use of the partial function to explicitly deal with the exceptions that make it returnnone. optionis a monad. We love monads.
part is an alternative to option that can be seen as the type of true/false values
along with a term a : α if the value is true.
Implementation notes #
option is currently defined in core Lean, but this will change in Lean 4.
option.map f is injective if f is injective.
option.map as a function between functions is injective.
Given an element of a : option α, a default element b : β and a function α → β, apply this
function to a if it comes from α, and return b otherwise.
Equations
- (option.some a).cases_on' n s = s a
- option.none.cases_on' n s = n
An arbitrary some a with a : α if α is nonempty, and otherwise none.
Equations
- option.choice α = dite (nonempty α) (λ (h : nonempty α), option.some h.some) (λ (h : ¬nonempty α), option.none)