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When answering a question with a suggestion to use GADTs , some questions with regards to performance came up in the comments. The question involved a typeclass PlotValue : class PlotValue a where value :: a -> Double and my answer suggested using a GADT Input : data Input where Input :: (PlotValue a, PlotValue b) => Maybe a -> Maybe b -> Input but the details are, I suppose, immaterial. I'm wondering about two aspects of performance: Time : Are there any runtime costs incurred by a pattern match like case x of Input (Just a) (Just b) -> value a * value b _ -> 0.0 over and above the normal costs matching two Maybe values? Space : How much storage overhead does a value of type Input carry? My guess is that it carries the two PlotValue dictionaries around for each and every value of type Input (a 'pointer' each?), meaning that a [Input] will be much more inefficient in terms of memory use than using (Just Double, Just Double) or, better yet, (# #Double, #Double #) - if you store the results of value in a normal or unpacked tuple. So, while I love the expressiveness GADTs give me, I've never thought about the performance aspects much. Can anyone tell me more about this (and any other hidden costs I might not be aware of)?

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