Tuple monoids by Mark Seemann

Tuples of monoids form monoids. Data objects of monoids also form monoids. An article for object-oriented programmers.

This article is part of a series about monoids. In short, a monoid is an associative binary operation with a neutral element (also known as identity). This article starts off with some easy-to-understand, but abstract results. Once these are established, however, you'll see how to use them in a relatable example, so keep reading!

Tuples #

A tuple is a group of elements. In statically typed programming languages, each element has a type, and the types don't have to be the same. As an example, in C#, you can create a tuple like this:

Tuple<int, string> pair = Tuple.Create(42, "Foo");

This creates a tuple where the first element must be an int and the second element a string. In the example, I've explicitly declared the type instead of using the var keyword, but this is only to make the type clearer (since you don't have an IDE in which to read the code).

The pair tuple is a two-tuple, which means that it must have exactly two elements, of the types given, but you can also create larger tuples:

Tuple<string, bool, int> triple = Tuple.Create("Bar", false, 42);

This is a three-tuple, but conceptually, tuples can have any size.

Pairs of monoids #

A pair (a two-tuple) forms a monoid if both elements form a monoid. Haskell formalises this by stating:

instance (Monoid a, Monoid b) => Monoid (a, b)

The way to read this is that for any monoid a and any monoid b, the pair (a, b) is also a monoid.

Perhaps this is easiest to understand with a C# example. Consider a tuple of the type Tuple<int, string>. Integers form monoids under both addition and multiplication, and strings are monoids under concatenation. Thus, you can make Tuple<int, string> form a monoid as well. For instance, use the multiplication monoid to define this binary operation:

public static Tuple<int, string> CombinePair(
    Tuple<int, string> x,
    Tuple<int, string> y)
{
    return Tuple.Create(x.Item1 * y.Item1, x.Item2 + y.Item2);
}

For this particular example, I've chosen multiplication as the binary operation for int, and the string concatenation operator + for string. The point is that since both elements are monoids, you can use their respective binary operations to return a new tuple with the combined values.

This operation is associative, as the following FsCheck property demonstrates:

[Property(QuietOnSuccess = true)]
public void CombinePairIsAssociative(
    Tuple<int, string> x,
    Tuple<int, string> y,
    Tuple<int, string> z)
{
    Assert.Equal(
        CombinePair(CombinePair(x, y), z),
        CombinePair(x, CombinePair(y, z)));
}

This property passes for all the x, y, and z values that FsCheck generates.

The CombinePair operation has identity as well:

public static Tuple<int, string> PairIdentity = Tuple.Create(1, "");

Again, you can use the identity value for each of the elements in the tuple: 1 for the multiplication monoid, and "" for string concatenation.

This value behaves as the identity for CombinePair, at least for all non-null string values:

[Property(QuietOnSuccess = true)]
public void CombinePairHasIdentity(Tuple<int, NonNull<string>> seed)
{
    var x = Tuple.Create(seed.Item1, seed.Item2.Get);
 
    Assert.Equal(CombinePair(PairIdentity, x), CombinePair(x, PairIdentity));
    Assert.Equal(x, CombinePair(x, PairIdentity));
}

Again, this test passes for all seed values generated by FsCheck.

The C# code here is only an example, but I hope it's clear how the result generalises.

Triples of monoids #

In the above section, you saw how pairs of monoids form a monoid. Not surprisingly, triples of monoids also form monoids. Here's another C# example:

public static Tuple<string, bool, int> CombineTriple(
    Tuple<string, bool, int> x,
    Tuple<string, bool, int> y)
{
    return Tuple.Create(
        x.Item1 + y.Item1,
        x.Item2 || y.Item2,
        x.Item3 * y.Item3);
}

The CombineTriple method is another binary operation. This time it combines two triples to a single triple. Since both string, bool, and int form monoids, it's possible to combine each element in the two tuples to create a new tuple. There's more than one monoid for integers, and the same goes for Boolean values, but here I've chosen multiplication and Boolean or, so the identity is this:

public static Tuple<string, bool, int> TripleIdentity =
    Tuple.Create("", false, 1);

This triple simply contains the identities for string concatenation, Boolean or, and multiplication. The operation is associative, but I'm not going to show this with a property-based test. Both tests for associativity and identity are similar to the above tests; you could consider writing them as an exercise, if you'd like.

This triple example only demonstrates a particular triple, but you can find the generalisation in Haskell:

instance (Monoid a, Monoid b, Monoid c) => Monoid (a, b, c)

This simply states that for monoids a, b, and c, the tuple (a, b, c) is also a monoid.

Generalisation #

At this point, it can hardly come as a surprise that quadruples and pentuples of monoids are also monoids. From Haskell:

instance (Monoid a, Monoid b, Monoid c, Monoid d) => Monoid (a, b, c, d)
instance (Monoid a, Monoid b, Monoid c, Monoid d, Monoid e) => Monoid (a, b, c, d, e)

The Haskell standard library stops at pentuples (five-tuples), because it has to stop somewhere, but I'm sure you can see how this is a general rule.

Data objects as monoids #

If you're an object-oriented programmer, you probably don't use tuples much in your day-to-day work. I'd even suggest that you shouldn't, because tuples carry too little information to make good domain objects. For example, if you have Tuple<int, string, string>, what do the elements mean? A better design would be to introduce a small Value Object called Customer, with Id, FirstName, and LastName properties.

(In functional programming, you frequently use tuples, because they're useful for 'gluing' generic functions together. A Haskell programmer may instead say that they are useful for composing parametrically polymorphic functions, but the meaning would be the same.)

As on object-oriented developer, then why should you care that tuples of monoids are monoids?

The reason this is interesting in object-oriented programming is that there's a strong relationship between tuples and data objects (Value Objects or Data Transfer Objects). Consider the Customer examples that I sketched out a few paragraphs above. As you'll learn in a future article, you can refactor a tuple to a class, or a class to a tuple.

Example: Roster #

In Denmark, where I live, learning to swim is a mandatory part of the school curriculum. Teachers take the children to the nearby swimming stadium and teach them to swim. Since this is an activity outside of school, teachers would be prudent to keep a roster of the children. Modelled as a class, it might look like this:

public class Roster
{
    public int Girls { get; }
    public int Boys { get; }
    public IReadOnlyCollection<string> Exemptions { get; }
 
    public Roster(int girls, int boys, params string[] exemptions)
    {
        Girls = girls;
        Boys = boys;
        Exemptions = exemptions;
    }
 
    // ...
}

Some children may be temporarily exempt from a swimming lesson, perhaps because of a passing medical condition. This changes from lesson to lesson, so the roster keeps track of them separately. Additionally, the boys will need to go in the men's changing rooms, and the girls in the women's changing rooms. This is the reason the roster keeps track of the number of boys and girls separately.

This, however, presents a logistical problem, because there's only one teacher for a class. The children are small, so need the company of an adult.

The way my children's school solved that problem was to combine two groups of children (in Danish, en klasse, a class), each with their own teacher - one female, and one male.

To model that, the Roster class should have a Combine method:

public Roster Combine(Roster other)
{
    return new Roster(
        this.Girls + other.Girls,
        this.Boys + other.Boys,
        this.Exemptions.Concat(other.Exemptions).ToArray());
}

Clearly, this is easy to implement. Just add the number of girls together, add the number of boys together, and concatenate the two lists of exemptions.

Here's an example of using the method:

[Fact]
public void UsageExample()
{
    var x = new Roster(11, 10, "Susan", "George");
    var y = new Roster(12, 9, "Edward");
 
    var roster = x.Combine(y);
 
    var expected = 
        new Roster(23, 19, "Susan", "George", "Edward");
    Assert.Equal(expected, roster);
}

The Combine method is an instance method on the Roster class, taking a second Roster as input, and returning a new Roster value. It's a binary operation. Does it also have identity?

Yes, it does:

public static readonly Roster Identity = new Roster(0, 0);

Notice that the exemptions constructor argument is a params array, so omitting it means passing an empty array as the third argument.

The following properties demonstrate that the Combine operation is both associative and has identity:

[Property(QuietOnSuccess = true)]
public void CombineIsAssociative(Roster x, Roster y, Roster z)
{
    Assert.Equal(
        x.Combine(y).Combine(z),
        x.Combine(y.Combine(z)));
}
 
[Property(QuietOnSuccess = true)]
public void CombineHasIdentity(Roster x)
{
    Assert.Equal(x, Roster.Identity.Combine(x));
    Assert.Equal(x, x.Combine(Roster.Identity));
}

In other words, Combine is a monoid.

This shouldn't surprise us in the least, since we've already established that tuples of monoids are monoids, and that a data class is more or less 'just' a tuple with named elements. Specifically, the Roster class is a 'tuple' of two addition monoids and the sequence concatenation monoid, so it follows that the Combine method is a monoid as well.

Roster isomorphism #

In future articles, you'll learn more about isomorphisms between various representations of objects, but in this context, I think it's relevant to show how the Roster example is isomorphic to a tuple. It's trivial, really:

public Tuple<int, int, string[]> ToTriple()
{
    return Tuple.Create(this.Girls, this.Boys, this.Exemptions.ToArray());
}
 
public static Roster FromTriple(Tuple<int, int, string[]> triple)
{
    return new Roster(triple.Item1, triple.Item2, triple.Item3);
}

This pair of methods turn a Roster into a triple, and a corresponding triple back into a Roster value. As the following two FsCheck properties demonstrate, these methods form an isomorphism:

[Property(QuietOnSuccess = true)]
public void ToTripleRoundTrips(Roster x)
{
    var triple = x.ToTriple();
    Assert.Equal(x, Roster.FromTriple(triple));
}
 
[Property(QuietOnSuccess = true)]
public void FromTripleRoundTrips(Tuple<int, int, string[]> triple)
{
    var roster = Roster.FromTriple(triple);
    Assert.Equal(triple, roster.ToTriple());
}

This isn't the only possible isomorphism between triples and Roster objects. You could create another one where the string[] element goes first, instead of last; where boys go before girls; and so on.

Summary #

Tuples of monoids are also monoids. This holds for tuples of any size, but all of the elements have to be monoids. By isomorphism, this result also applies to data objects.

Next: Function monoids.

Comments

Prelude Data.Monoid> :t Sum
Sum :: a -> Sum a

Prelude Data.Monoid> Sum 40 <> Sum 2
Sum {getSum = 42}

Prelude Data.Monoid> :t Product
Product :: a -> Product a
Prelude Data.Monoid> Product 6 <> Product 7
Product {getProduct = 42}

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