splitAt package:base

splitAt n xs returns a tuple where first element is xs prefix of length n and second element is the remainder of the list: splitAt is an instance of the more general genericSplitAt, in which n may be of any integral type.

Laziness

It is equivalent to (take n xs, drop n xs) unless n is _|_: splitAt _|_ xs = _|_, not (_|_, _|_)). The first component of the tuple is produced lazily:

>>> fst (splitAt 0 undefined)
[]

>>> take 1 (fst (splitAt 10 (1 : undefined)))
[1]

Examples

>>> splitAt 6 "Hello World!"
("Hello ","World!")

>>> splitAt 3 [1,2,3,4,5]
([1,2,3],[4,5])

>>> splitAt 1 [1,2,3]
([1],[2,3])

>>> splitAt 3 [1,2,3]
([1,2,3],[])

>>> splitAt 4 [1,2,3]
([1,2,3],[])

>>> splitAt 0 [1,2,3]
([],[1,2,3])

>>> splitAt (-1) [1,2,3]
([],[1,2,3])

splitAt n xs returns a pair consisting of the prefix of xs of length n and the remaining stream immediately following this prefix.

'splitAt' n xs == ('take' n xs, 'drop' n xs)
xs == ys ++ zs where (ys, zs) = 'splitAt' n xs

The genericSplitAt function is an overloaded version of splitAt, which accepts any Integral value as the position at which to split.