How can a time function exist in functional programming?

Question

I've to admit that I don't know much about functional programming. I read about it from here and there, and so came to know that in functional programming, a function returns the same output, for same input, no matter how many times the function is called. It's exactly like a mathematical function which evaluates to the same output for the same value of the input parameters which involves in the function expression.

For example, consider this:

f(x,y) = x*x + y; // It is a mathematical function

No matter how many times you use f(10,4), its value will always be 104. As such, wherever you've written f(10,4), you can replace it with 104, without altering the value of the whole expression. This property is referred to as referential transparency of an expression.

As Wikipedia says (link),

Conversely, in functional code, the output value of a function depends only on the arguments that are input to the function, so calling a function f twice with the same value for an argument x will produce the same result f(x) both times.

Can a time function (which returns the current time) exist in functional programming?

• If yes, then how can it exist? Does it not violate the principle of functional programming? It particularly violates referential transparency which is one of the property of functional programming (if I correctly understand it).

• Or if no, then how can one know the current time in functional programming?

Answer 1

Yes and no.

Different functional programming languages solve them differently.

In Haskell (a very pure one) all this stuff has to happen in something called the I/O Monad - see here.

You can think of it as getting another input (and output) into your function (the world-state) or easier as a place where "impureness" like getting the changing time happens.

Other languages like F# just have some impureness built in and so you can have a function that returns different values for the same input - just like normal imperative languages.

As Jeffrey Burka mentioned in his comment: Here is the nice introduction to the I/O Monad straight from the Haskell wiki.

Answer 2

Another way to explain it is this: no function can get the current time (since it keeps changing), but an action can get the current time. Let's say that getClockTime is a constant (or a nullary function, if you like) which represents the action of getting the current time. This action is the same every time no matter when it is used so it is a real constant.

Likewise, let's say print is a function which takes some time representation and prints it to the console. Since function calls cannot have side effects in a pure functional language, we instead imagine that it is a function which takes a timestamp and returns the action of printing it to the console. Again, this is a real function, because if you give it the same timestamp, it will return the same action of printing it every time.

Now, how can you print the current time to the console? Well, you have to combine the two actions. So how can we do that? We cannot just pass getClockTime to print, since print expects a timestamp, not an action. But we can imagine that there is an operator, >>=, which combines two actions, one which gets a timestamp, and one which takes one as argument and prints it. Applying this to the actions previously mentioned, the result is... tadaaa... a new action which gets the current time and prints it. And this is incidentally exactly how it is done in Haskell.

Prelude> System.Time.getClockTime >>= print
Fri Sep  2 01:13:23 東京 (標準時) 2011

So, conceptually, you can view it in this way: A pure functional program does not perform any I/O, it defines an action, which the runtime system then executes. The action is the same every time, but the result of executing it depends on the circumstances of when it is executed.

I don't know if this was any clearer than the other explanations, but it sometimes helps me to think of it this way.

Answer 3

In Haskell one uses a construct called monad to handle side effects. A monad basically means that you encapsulate values into a container and have some functions to chain functions from values to values inside a container. If our container has the type:

data IO a = IO (RealWorld -> (a,RealWorld))

we can safely implement IO actions. This type means: An action of type IO is a function, that takes a token of type RealWorld and returns a new token, together with a result.

The idea behind this is that each IO action mutates the outside state, represented by the magical token RealWorld. Using monads, one can chain multiple functions that mutate the real world together. The most important function of a monad is >>=, pronounced bind:

(>>=) :: IO a -> (a -> IO b) -> IO b

>>= takes one action and a function that takes the result of this action and creates a new action out of this. The return type is the new action. For instance, let's pretend there is a function now :: IO String, which returns a String representing the current time. We can chain it with the function putStrLn to print it out:

now >>= putStrLn

Or written in do-Notation, which is more familiar to an imperative programmer:

do currTime <- now
   putStrLn currTime

All this is pure, as we map the mutation and information about the world outside to the RealWorld token. So each time, you run this action, you get of course a different output, but the input is not the same: the RealWorld token is different.

Answer 4

Most functional programming languages are not pure, i.e. they allow functions to not only depend on their values. In those languages it is perfectly possible to have a function returning the current time. From the languages you tagged this question with this applies to Scala and F# (as well as most other variants of ML).

In languages like Haskell and Clean, which are pure, the situation is different. In Haskell the current time would not be available through a function, but a so-called IO action, which is Haskell's way of encapsulating side effects.

In Clean it would be a function, but the function would take a world value as its argument and return a fresh world value (in addition to the current time) as its result. The type system would make sure that each world value can be used only once (and each function which consumes a world value would produces a new one). This way the time function would have to be called with a different argument each time and thus would be allowed to return a different time each time.

Answer 5

"Current time" is not a function. It is a parameter. If your code depends on current time, it means your code is parameterized by time.

Answer 6

It can absolutely be done in a purely functional way. There are several ways to do it, but the simplest is to have the time function return not just the time but also the function you must call to get the next time measurement.

In C# you could implement it like this:

// Exposes mutable time as immutable time (poorly, to illustrate by example)
// Although the insides are mutable, the exposed surface is immutable.
public class ClockStamp {
    public static readonly ClockStamp ProgramStartTime = new ClockStamp();
    public readonly DateTime Time;
    private ClockStamp _next;

    private ClockStamp() {
        this.Time = DateTime.Now;
    }
    public ClockStamp NextMeasurement() {
        if (this._next == null) this._next = new ClockStamp();
        return this._next;
    }
}

(Keep in mind that this is an example meant to be simple, not practical. In particular, the list nodes can't be garbage collected because they are rooted by ProgramStartTime.)

This 'ClockStamp' class acts like an immutable linked list, but really the nodes are generated on demand so they can contain the 'current' time. Any function that wants to measure the time should have a 'clockStamp' parameter and must also return its last time measurement in its result (so the caller doesn't see old measurements), like this:

// Immutable. A result accompanied by a clockstamp
public struct TimeStampedValue<T> {
    public readonly ClockStamp Time;
    public readonly T Value;
    public TimeStampedValue(ClockStamp time, T value) {
        this.Time = time;
        this.Value = value;
    }
}

// Times an empty loop.
public static TimeStampedValue<TimeSpan> TimeALoop(ClockStamp lastMeasurement) {
    var start = lastMeasurement.NextMeasurement();
    for (var i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
    }
    var end = start.NextMeasurement();
    var duration = end.Time - start.Time;
    return new TimeStampedValue<TimeSpan>(end, duration);
}

public static void Main(String[] args) {
    var clock = ClockStamp.ProgramStartTime;
    var r = TimeALoop(clock);
    var duration = r.Value; //the result
    clock = r.Time; //must now use returned clock, to avoid seeing old measurements
}

Of course, it's a bit inconvenient to have to pass that last measurement in and out, in and out, in and out. There are many ways to hide the boilerplate, especially at the language design level. I think Haskell uses this sort of trick and then hides the ugly parts by using monads.

Answer 7

I am surprised that none of the answers or comments mention coalgebras or coinduction. Usually, coinduction is mentioned when reasoning about infinite data structures, but it is also applicable to an endless stream of observations, such as a time register on a CPU. A coalgebra models hidden state; and coinduction models observing that state. (Normal induction models constructing state.)

This is a hot topic in Reactive Functional Programming. If you're interested in this sort of stuff, read this: http://digitalcommons.ohsu.edu/csetech/91/ (28 pp.)

• Kieburtz, Richard B., "Reactive functional programming" (1997). CSETech. Paper 91 (link)

Answer 8

Yes, it's possible for a pure function to return the time, if it's given that time as a parameter. Different time argument, different time result. Then form other functions of time as well and combine them with a simple vocabulary of function(-of-time)-transforming (higher-order) functions. Since the approach is stateless, time here can be continuous (resolution-independent) rather than discrete, greatly boosting modularity. This intuition is the basis of Functional Reactive Programming (FRP).

Answer 9

Yes, a getting time function can exist in functional programming using a slightly modified version on functional programming known as impure functional programming (the default or the main one is pure functional programming).

In case of getting the time (or reading file, or launching missile) the code needs to interact with the outer world to get the job done and this outer world is not based on the pure foundations of functional programming. To allow a pure functional programming world to interact with this impure outside world, people have introduced impure functional programming. After all, software which doesn't interact with the outside world isn't any useful other than doing some mathematical computations.

Few functional programming programming languages have this impurity feature inbuilt in them such that it is not easy to separate out which code is impure and which is pure (like F#, etc.) and some functional programming languages make sure that when you do some impure stuff that code is clearly stand out as compared to pure code, like Haskell.

Another interesting way to see this would be that your get time function in functional programming would take a "world" object which has the current state of the world like time, number of people living in the world, etc. Then getting time from which world object would be always pure i.e you pass in the same world state you will always get the same time.

Answer 10

Yes! You are correct! Now() or CurrentTime() or any method signature of such flavour is not exhibiting referential transparency in one way. But by instruction to the compiler it is parameterized by a system clock input.

By output, Now() might look like not following referential transparency. But actual behaviour of the system clock and the function on top of it is adheres to referential transparency.

Answer 11

Your question conflates two related measures of a computer language: functional/imperative and pure/impure.

A functional language defines relationships between inputs and outputs of functions, and an imperative language describes specific operations in a specific order to perform.

A pure language does not create or depend on side effects, and an impure language uses them throughout.

One-hundred percent pure programs are basically useless. They may perform an interesting calculation, but because they cannot have side effects they have no input or output so you would never know what they calculated.

To be useful at all, a program has to be at least a smidge impure. One way to make a pure program useful is to put it inside a thin impure wrapper. Like this untested Haskell program:

-- this is a pure function, written in functional style.
fib 0 = 0
fib 1 = 1
fib n = fib (n-1) + fib (n-2)

-- This is an impure wrapper around the pure function, written in imperative style
-- It depends on inputs and produces outputs.
main = do
    putStrLn "Please enter the input parameter"
    inputStr <- readLine
    putStrLn "Starting time:"
    getCurrentTime >>= print
    let inputInt = read inputStr    -- this line is pure
    let result = fib inputInt       -- this is also pure
    putStrLn "Result:"
    print result
    putStrLn "Ending time:"
    getCurrentTime >>= print

Answer 12

You're broaching a very important subject in functional programming, that is, performing I/O. The way many pure languages go about it is by using embedded domain-specific languages, e.g., a sublanguage whose task it is to encode actions, which can have results.

The Haskell runtime for example expects me to define an action called main that is composed of all actions that make up my program. The runtime then executes this action. Most of the time, in doing so it executes pure code. From time to time the runtime will use the computed data to perform I/O and feeds back data back into pure code.

You might complain that this sounds like cheating, and in a way it is: by defining actions and expecting the runtime to execute them, the programmer can do everything a normal program can do. But Haskell's strong type system creates a strong barrier between pure and "impure" parts of the program: you cannot simply add, say, two seconds to the current CPU time, and print it, you have to define an action that results in the current CPU time, and pass the result on to another action that adds two seconds and prints the result. Writing too much of a program is considered bad style though, because it makes it hard to infer which effects are caused, compared to Haskell types that tell us everything we can know about what a value is.

Example: clock_t c = time(NULL); printf("%d\n", c + 2); in C, vs. main = getCPUTime >>= \c -> print (c + 2*1000*1000*1000*1000) in Haskell. The operator >>= is used to compose actions, passing the result of the first to a function resulting in the second action. This looking quite arcane, Haskell compilers support syntactic sugar that allows us to write the latter code as follows:

type Clock = Integer -- To make it more similar to the C code

-- An action that returns nothing, but might do something
main :: IO ()
main = do
    -- An action that returns an Integer, which we view as CPU Clock values
    c <- getCPUTime :: IO Clock
    -- An action that prints data, but returns nothing
    print (c + 2*1000*1000*1000*1000) :: IO ()

The latter looks quite imperative, doesn't it?

Answer 13

If yes, then how can it exist? Does it not violate the principle of functional programming? It particularly violates referential transparency

It does not exist in a purely functional sense.

Or if no, then how can one know the current time in functional programming?

It may first be useful to know how a time is retrieved on a computer. Essentially there is onboard circuitry that keeps track of the time (which is the reason a computer would usually need a small cell battery). Then there might be some internal process that sets the value of time at a certain memory register. Which essentially boils down to a value that can be retrieved by the CPU.

---

For Haskell, there is a concept of an 'IO action' which represents a type that can be made to carry out some IO process. So instead of referencing a time value we reference a IO Time value. All this would be purely functional. We aren't referencing time but something along the lines of 'read the value of the time register'.

When we actually execute the Haskell program, the IO action would actually take place.

Answer 14

How can a time function exist in functional programming?

Back in 1988, Dave Harrison was facing this very question when defining an early functional language with real-time processing facilities. The solution he chose for Ruth can be found on page 50 of his thesis Functional Real-Time Programming: The Language Ruth And Its Semantics:

A unique clock is automatically supplied to each Ruth process at run-time, to provide real-time information, [...]

So how are these clocks defined? From page 61:

A clock tree is composed of a node holding a non-negative integer denoting the current time and two sub-trees containing the times of future events.

Furthermore:

As the tree is (lazily) evaluated each of the nodes is instantiated with the value of system time at the time at which the node is instantiated, thus giving programs reference to the current time.

Translating that into Haskell:

type Clock = Tree Time
type Time  = Integer -- must be zero or larger

data Tree a = Node { contents :: a,
                     left     :: Tree a,
                     right    :: Tree a }

In addition to accessing the current time (with contents), each Ruth process can provide other clocks (with left and right) for use elsewhere in the program. If a process needs the current time more than once, it must use a new node on each occasion - once instantiated, a node's contents remains constant.

So that's how a time function can exist in a functional language: by always being applied to a unique input value (a tree-of-times in this case) wherever it's called.

Answer 15

It can be answered without introducing other concepts of FP.

Possibility 1: time as function argument

A language consists of

1. language core and
2. standard library.

Referential transparency is a property of language core, but not standard library. By no means is it a property of programs written in that language.

Using OP's notation, should one have a function

f(t) = t*v0 + x0; // mathematical function that knows current time

They would ask standard library to get current time, say 1.23, and compute the function with that value as an argument f(1.23) (or just 1.23*v0 + x0, referential transparency!). That way the code gets to know the current time.

Possibility 2: time as return value

Answering OP's question:

Can a time function (which returns the current time) exist in functional programming?

Yes, but that function has to have an argument and you would have to compute it with different inputs so it returns different current time, otherwise it would violate the principals of FP.

f(s) = t(s)*v0 + x0; // mathematical function t(s) returns current time

This is an alternative approach to what I've described above. But then again, the question of obtaining those different inputs s in the first place still comes down to standard library.

Possibility 3: functional reactive programming

The idea is that function t() evaluates to current time paired with function t2. When one needs current time again later they are to call t2(), it will then give function t3 and so on

(x, t2) = t(); // it's x o'clock now
...
(x2, t3) = t2(); // now it's already x2 o'clock
...
t(); x; // both evaluate to the initial time, referential transparency!

---

There's more to FP but I believe it's out of the scope of OP. For example, how does one ask standard library to compute a function and act upon its return value in purely functional way: that one is rather about side effects than referential transparency.