Are there tricks for doing implicit conversions in F#?

Question

Consider this F# code to sum the numbers below i that are multiples of 3 and 5:

let isMultipleOfThreeOrFive n = 
    (n % 3 = 0) || (n % 5 = 0)
         


        

Answer 1

You did the best thing.

(There is not an easier way to "get around" it than by adding the six characters you added. Even without implicit conversions, the F# is shorter than the C#, and the delta change-from-int-to-BigInteger is also smaller in F# than C#. So don't be sad about the loss of implicit conversion - be happy about all the other succinctness wins. :) )

Answer 2

This doesn't exactly answer your question, but note that it's also possible to make sequenceOfMultiples generic by defining your own numeric literal:

module NumericLiteralG =
  let inline FromZero() = LanguagePrimitives.GenericZero
  let inline FromOne() = LanguagePrimitives.GenericOne
  let inline FromInt32 (i:int) =
    let zero : ^a = FromZero()
    let one : ^a = FromOne()
    let rec compute : int -> ^a = function
    | 0 -> zero
    | n -> 
        let half = compute (n/2)
        let whole = half + half
        if (n%2 = 0) then whole
        else whole + one
    compute i

let inline isMultipleOfThreeOrFive n = 
    (n % 3G = 0G) || (n % 5G = 0G)

let inline sequenceOfMultiples i =
    seq {1G .. i - 1G} |> Seq.filter isMultipleOfThreeOrFive

let bigintSeq = sequenceOfMultiples 100I
let intSeq = sequenceOfMultiples 100

// doesn't compile
let stringSeq = sequenceOfMultiples "100"