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Concept
Type variable
Summary
In type theory and programming languages, a type variable is a mathematical variable ranging over types. Even in programming languages that allow mutable variables, a type variable remains an abstraction, in the sense that it does not correspond to some memory locations.
Programming languages that support parametric polymorphism make use of universally quantified type variables. Languages that support existential types make use of existentially quantified type variables. For example, the following OCaml code defines a polymorphic identity function that has a universally quantified type, which is printed by the interpreter on the second line:
let id x = x;;
val id : 'a -> 'a = In mathematical notation, the type of the function id is , where is a type variable.Official source
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Related concepts (3)
Type variable
In type theory and programming languages, a type variable is a mathematical variable ranging over types. Even in programming languages that allow mutable variables, a type variable remains an abstraction, in the sense that it does not correspond to some memory locations. Programming languages that support parametric polymorphism make use of universally quantified type variables. Languages that support existential types make use of existentially quantified type variables.
System F
System F (also polymorphic lambda calculus or second-order lambda calculus) is a typed lambda calculus that introduces, to simply typed lambda calculus, a mechanism of universal quantification over types. System F formalizes parametric polymorphism in programming languages, thus forming a theoretical basis for languages such as Haskell and ML. It was discovered independently by logician Jean-Yves Girard (1972) and computer scientist John C. Reynolds.
Type system
In computer programming, a type system is a logical system comprising a set of rules that assigns a property called a type (for example, integer, floating point, string) to every "term" (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Usually the terms are various constructs of a computer program, such as variables, expressions, functions, or modules. A type system dictates the operations that can be performed on a term. For variables, the type system determines the allowed values of that term.