F# comes with a number of essential basic functions and operators pre-defined. For example, even "+" is an operator defined in Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators, which is opened by default. Likewise "abs" is a function to take the absolute value of a signed integer or floating point number, and "int64" is a function that converts its input to a 64-bit signed integer.
In this post I've listed the most important of the pre-defined operators. These operators are also now listed in the F# manual, Chapter 16. Importantly, many of these operators use a form of statically resolved, extensible overloading in the form of F# member constraints. That is, a function such as "int64" (convert to int64) can be used with any type that has a static ToInt64 member with an appropriate signature. The relevant corresponding member name is shown in F# intellisense in Visual Studio and may appear in error messages, and the full required signature is specified in prim-types.fsi in the F# distribution. F# simulates the presence of certain methods on basic types to ensure consistency and uniformity in the overloading scheme.
Note that some functions have beeen added in the CTP release and may be unfamiliar to existing users, e.g. pown. Also, some functions an operators are given special types when applied to floating point (float, float32 or decimal) arguments with unit-of-measure annotations.
Type Name
Short Description
obj
System.Object
exn
System.Exception
nativeint
System.IntPtr
unativeint
System.UIntPtr
string
System.String
float32, single
System.Single
float, double
System.Double
sbyte
System.SByte
byte
System.Byte
int16
System.Int16
uint16
System.UInt16
int32, int
System.Int32
uint32
System.UInt32
int64
System.Int64
uint64
System.UInt64
char
System.Char
bool
System.Boolean
decimal
System.Decimal
The following operators are defined in Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators:
Operator/Function Name
Expression Form
(+)
x + y
Overloaded addition
(-)
x - y
Overloaded subtraction
(*)
x * y
Overloaded multiplication
(/)
x / y
Overloaded division
(%)
x % y
Overloaded modulus
(~-)
-x
Overloaded unary negation
not
not x
Boolean negation
(<)
x < y
Generic less-than
(<=)
x <= y
Generic less-than-or-equal
(>)
x > y
Generic greater-than
(>=)
x >= y
Generic greater-than-or-equal
(=)
x = y
Generic equality
(<>)
x <> y
Generic disequality
max
max x y
Generic maximum
min
min x y
Generic minimum
(<<<)
x <<< y
Overloaded bitwise shift-left
(>>>)
x >>> y
Overloaded bitwise arithmetic shift-right
(^^^)
x ^^^ y
Overloaded bitwise exclusive or
(&&&)
x &&& y
Overloaded bitwise and
(|||)
x ||| y
Overloaded bitwise or
(~~~)
~~~x
Overloaded bitwise negation
abs
abs x
Overloaded absolute value
acos
acos x
Overloaded inverse cosine
asin
asin x
Overloaded inverse sine
atan
atan x
Overloaded inverse tangent
atan2
atan2 x y
Overloaded inverse tangent of x/y
ceil
ceil x
Overloaded floating point ceiling
cos
cos x
Overloaded cosine
cosh
cosh x
Overloaded hyperbolic cosine
exp
exp x
Overloaded exponent
floor
floor x
Overloaded floating point floor
log
log x
Overloaded natural logarithm
log10
log10 x
Overloaded base-10 logarithm
(**)
x ** y
Overloaded exponential
pown
pown x y
Overloaded integer exponential
round
round x
Overloaded rounding
sign
sign x
Overloaded sign function
sin
sin x
Overloaded sine function
sinh
sinh x
Overloaded hyperbolic sine function
sqrt
sqrt x
Overloaded square root function
tan
tan x
Overloaded tangent function
tanh
tanh x
Overloaded hyperbolic tangent function
(|>)
x |> f
Pipelining
(>>)
f >> g
Function composition
(<|)
f <| x
Backward pipelining
(<<)
g << f
Backward function composition
ignore
ignore x
Compute and discard a value
box
box x
Convert to object representation
hash
hash x
Generic hashing operator
sizeof
sizeof<type>
Compute the size of a value of the given type
typeof
typeof<type>
Compute the System.Type representation of the given type
typedefof
typedefof<type>
Compute the System.Type representation of the given type and calls GetGenericTypeDefinition if this is a generic type.
unbox
unbox x
Convert form object representation
ref
ref x
Allocate a mutable reference cell
(!)
!x
Read a mutable reference cell
fst
fst p
Take the first element of a pair
snd
snd p
Take the second element of a pair
failwith
failwith x
Raise a FailureException exception
invalid_arg
invalid_arg x
Raise an ArgumentException exception
raise
raise x
Raise an exception
rethrow
rethrow()
Special operator to raise an exception
stdin
Computes System.Console.In
stdout
Computes System.Console.Out
stderr
Computes System.Console.Error
byte x
Overloaded conversion to a byte
sbyte x
Overloaded conversion to a signed byte
int16 x
Overloaded conversion to a 16 bit integer
uint16 x
Overloaded conversion to an unsigned 16 bit integer
int32 x
int x
Overloaded conversion to a 32 bit integer
uint32 x
Overloaded conversion to an unsigned 32 bit integer
int64 x
Overloaded conversion to a 64 bit integer
uint64 x
Overloaded conversion to an unsigned 64 bit integer
nativeint x
Overloaded conversion to an native integer
unativeint x
Overloaded conversion to an unsigned native integer
float x
double x
Overloaded conversion to a 64-bit IEEE floating point number
float32 x
single x
Overloaded conversion to a 32-bit IEEE floating point number
decimal x
Overloaded conversion to a System.Decimal number
char x
Overloaded conversion to a System.Char value
enum
enum x
Overloaded conversion to a typed enumeration value
The module Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.Checked defines runtime-overflow-checked versions of the following operators:
Checked overloaded addition
x – y
Checked overloaded subtraction
Checked overloaded multiplication
Checked overloaded unary negation
Checked overloaded conversion to a byte
Checked overloaded conversion to a signed byte
Checked overloaded conversion to a 16 bit integer
Checked overloaded conversion to an unsigned 16 bit integer
Checked overloaded conversion to a 32 bit integer
Checked overloaded conversion to an unsigned 32 bit integer
Checked overloaded converstion to a 64 bit integer
Checked overloaded conversion to an unsigned 64 bit integer
Checked overloaded conversion to an native integer
Checked overloaded conversion to an unsigned native integer
Checked overloaded conversion to a System.Char value
Great overview, which is in my opinion a bit more accesible than the overview in the documentation.
I caught a typo up above in row unbox:
"Convert form object representation". If these were copy/pasted from elsewhere, please correct.
This is great work. Are ther points
in FSharp?
I would like to know more about F#
such as how could i learn this language
how soon will manuals be available?
Have people started to use this yet?  I was just introduced to it and think it has a lot of potential