What does the : infix operator do in Haskell?

Question

I\'m reading A Gentle Introduction to Haskell (which is not so gentle) and it repeatedly uses the : operator without directly explaining what it does.

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Answer 1

Could always check out the types in GHCi/HUGS, as the first steps in the tutorial encourage you to download GHC/HUGS.

Prelude> :t (:)
(:) :: a -> [a] -> [a]
Prelude> :t (++)
(++) :: [a] -> [a] -> [a]

From their respective types, it's quite easy to deduce their usage.

PS: http://haskell.org/hoogle/ is awesome.