A value of type 'a Lazy.t
is a deferred computation, called
a suspension, that has a result of type 'a
. The special
expression syntax lazy (expr)
makes a suspension of the
computation of expr
, without computing expr
itself yet.
"Forcing" the suspension will then compute expr
and return its
result.
Note: lazy_t
is the built-in type constructor used by the compiler
for the lazy
keyword. You should not use it directly. Always use
Lazy.t
instead.
Note: Lazy.force
is not thread-safe. If you use this module in
a multi-threaded program, you will need to add some locks.
Note: if the program is compiled with the -rectypes
option,
ill-founded recursive definitions of the form let rec x = lazy x
or let rec x = lazy(lazy(...(lazy x)))
are accepted by the type-checker
and lead, when forced, to ill-formed values that trigger infinite
loops in the garbage collector and other parts of the run-time system.
Without the -rectypes
option, such ill-founded recursive definitions
are rejected by the type-checker.
force x
forces the suspension x
and returns its result.
If x
has already been forced, Lazy.force x
returns the
same value again without recomputing it. If it raised an exception,
the same exception is raised again.
Raise Undefined
if the forcing of x
tries to force x
itself
recursively.
Like force
except that if the computation of x
raises an exception, it is
unspecified whether force_val x
raises the same exception or Undefined
.
from_fun f
is the same as lazy (f ())
but slightly more efficient.
from_val v
returns an already-forced suspension of v
This is for special purposes only and should not be confused with
lazy (v)
.