In F#, How can I attach metadata to discriminated union values? - f#

Question

I want to create something that's kind of like an enum with an F# record type for a value instead of an int. For example, if I've got the union:
type BologneseIngredients = | Spaghetti
| Tomatoes
| MincedBeef
| GrandmasSecretIngredient
I know that spaghetti is always 30cm long and tomatoes are always red. What I could do is have a 'get metadata' function:
let getMetadata = function
| Spaghetti -> { length: 30.0<cm> }
| Tomatoes -> { colour: Color.Red }
| _ -> { }
but I'd really like to keep the definition of the union and the data together. Is there a nice way to do this?

Answer 1

You could add properties to your discriminated union...
type BologneseIngredients =
| Spaghetti
| Tomatoes
| MincedBeef
| GrandmasSecretIngredient
member x.Color =
match x with
| Spaghetti -> Color.AntiqueWhite
| Tomatoes -> Color.Red
| MincedBeef -> Color.Firebrick
| GrandmasSecretIngredient -> Color.Transparent
let foo = Tomatoes
printfn "%A" foo.Color
> Color [Red]

Answer 2

my suggestion:
module Recipes =
type BologneseIngredients = | Spaghetti
| Tomatoes
| MincedBeef
| GrandmasSecretIngredient
let length (ind : BologneseIngredients) : float<cm> option =
match ind with
| Sphaghetti -> Some 30.0<cm>
| _ -> None
// .. or a bit more "metadata"ish
type Metadata =
| Length of float<cm>
| Color of System.Drawing.Color
let metadata =
function
| Sphaghetti -> [ Length 30.0<cm ]
| Tomatoes -> [ Color System.Drawing.Color.Red ]
| ...
let metaLength meta =
meta |> List.tryPick (function | Length l -> Some l | _ -> None)
let getLength = metadata >> metaLength