3.5 Unification

Unification is the heart of the type system and contributes immensely to the robustness of Haxe programs. It describes the process of checking if a type is compatible with another type.

Define: Unification

Unification between two types A and B is a directional process which answers one question: whether A can be assigned to B. It may mutate either type if it either is or has a monomorph.

Unification errors are very easy to trigger:

class Main {
  static public function main() {
    // Int should be String
    var s:String = 1;
  }
}

We try to assign a value of type Int to a variable of type String, which causes the compiler to try and unify Int with String. This is, of course, not allowed and makes the compiler emit the error Int should be String.

In this particular case, the unification is triggered by an assignment, a context in which the "is assignable to" definition is intuitive. It is one of several cases where unification is performed:

• Assignment: If a is assigned to b, the type of a is unified with the type of b.
• Function call: We have briefly seen an example of this while introducing the function type. In general, the compiler tries to unify the first given argument type with the first expected argument type, the second given argument type with the second expected argument type, and so on until all argument types are handled.
• Function return: Whenever a function has a return e expression, the type of e is unified with the function return type. If the function has no explicit return type, it is inferred to the type of e and subsequent return expressions are inferred against it.
• Array declaration: The compiler tries to find a minimal type between all given types in an array declaration. Refer to Common Base Type for details.
• Object declaration: If an object is declared "against" a given type, the compiler unifies each given field type with each expected field type.
• Operator unification: Certain operators expect certain types which the given types are unified against. For instance, the expression a && b unifies both a and b with Bool and the expression a == b unifies a with b.

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