Once we have a list, how do we check whether that list contains a certain value? This is sort of like the Ruby method “include?”.
We want to provide the value we are looking for, and the list in which we would like to look for it.
(1) includes::Int->[Int]->Bool
Let’s first try using pattern matching and recursion.
(2) includes x (y:ys)
| x==y = True
|otherwise = includes x ys
In other words, take the head of the provided list and compare it to the desired value. If equal, return true. We don’t need to look anymore, because we know the value is there. If not equal, then we need to keep looking, so recurse, using the tail of the provided list for the next evaluation.
(3) includes x [] = False
We will only get to this step if we have not matched the value before we get to the empty list. if that is the case, then we want to return False.
We’ll look next time at some other, perhaps more elegant, but perhaps slower, way to do this.
