How to relate to type from outer context

Question

Let us consider the following code snippet:

blah :: a -> b -> a
blah x y = ble x where
    ble :: b -> b
    ble x = x

This compiles fine under GHC, which essentially means that b from the 3rd line is something different than b from the first line.

My question is simple: is there a way to somehow relate in the type declaration of ble to a type used in an outer context, i.e. the type declaration of blah?

Obviously, this is just an example and not a real-world use-case for type declarations.

Answer 1

This is possible with the ScopedTypeVariables extension. You need to use explicit forall's to bring the type variables into scope.

blah :: forall a b. a -> b -> a
blah x y = ble x where
    ble :: b -> b
    ble x = x

Trying to load this definition with ScopedTypeVariables enabled gives:

foo.hs:2:16:
    Couldn't match type `a' with `b'
      `a' is a rigid type variable bound by
          the type signature for blah :: a -> b -> a at foo.hs:2:1
      `b' is a rigid type variable bound by
          the type signature for blah :: a -> b -> a at foo.hs:2:1
    In the first argument of `ble', namely `x'
    In the expression: ble x
    In an equation for `blah':
        blah x y
          = ble x
          where
              ble :: b -> b
              ble x = x

You can tell that GHC interprets the two bs as the same type because the error says that a and b are bound on the same line.

Answer 2

If you don't want to use ScopedTypeVariables, you can use the good ole fashion asTypeOf function.

-- defined in Prelude
asTypeOf :: a -> a -> a
x `asTypeOf` y = x

---

blah :: a -> b -> a
blah x y = ble x where
    ble x = x `asTypeOf` y

Of course, this won't compile because of the type error.

Update:

I would like to point out that sometimes you might have to be a little crafty to do what you want with asTypeOf. Take the following example that superflously uses asTypeOf because I don't want to think of a case that actually needs asTypeOf. Similar solutions would work the same for real world cases.

foo :: Bounded a => Maybe a -> a
foo m = x
  where
    x = maxBound -- Q: how do I make (x :: a) when given (Maybe a)?
    _ = Just x `asTypeof` m -- A: witchcraft!