Duplicates removal with foldl - list

Question

I'm trying to write my implementation of remdps, function, which removes nearest duplicates in a list. For example: "aaabbbsscaa" should became "absca". I have to use foldl. Here is my attempt:
helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
helper [] ele = [ele]
helper newlist ele = if tail newlist /= ele then newlist:ele
else newlist
remdps :: Eq a => [a] -> [a]
remdps list = foldl helper [] list
main = putStrLn (show (remdps "aabssscdddeaffff"))
And the error:
4.hs:4:41:
Could not deduce (a ~ [a])
from the context (Eq a)
bound by the type signature for helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
at 4.hs:2:11-33
`a' is a rigid type variable bound by
the type signature for helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
at 4.hs:2:11
In the second argument of `(/=)', namely `ele'
In the expression: tail newlist /= ele
In the expression:
if tail newlist /= ele then newlist : ele else newlist
4.hs:4:50:
Could not deduce (a ~ [a])
from the context (Eq a)
bound by the type signature for helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
at 4.hs:2:11-33
`a' is a rigid type variable bound by
the type signature for helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
at 4.hs:2:11
In the first argument of `(:)', namely `newlist'
In the expression: newlist : ele
In the expression:
if tail newlist /= ele then newlist : ele else newlist
4.hs:4:58:
Could not deduce (a ~ [a])
from the context (Eq a)
bound by the type signature for helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
at 4.hs:2:11-33
`a' is a rigid type variable bound by
the type signature for helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
at 4.hs:2:11
In the second argument of `(:)', namely `ele'
In the expression: newlist : ele
In the expression:
if tail newlist /= ele then newlist : ele else newlist
fish: Unknown command './4'
ghc 4.hs; and ./4
The question is always the same:). What's wrong?
//edit
OK, I have a working code. It uses reverse and ++, so it's very ugly:).
helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
helper [] ele = [ele]
helper newlist ele = if head (reverse newlist) /= ele then newlist ++ [ele]
else newlist
remdps :: Eq a => [a] -> [a]
remdps list = foldl helper [] list
main = putStrLn (show (remdps "aabssscdddeaffff"))

Answer 1

What you're probably trying to do is this:
helper :: Eq a => [a] -> a -> [a]
helper [] ele = [ele]
helper newlist ele = if last newlist /= ele then newlist ++ [ele]
else newlist
The changes:
: works only in one way: on the left is the head of the list (type a), on the right the tail (type [a]). It's sometimes also called "cons". What you want to do is called "snoc": on its right is the last element of the list (type a), and on the left the initial part (type [a]).
"snoc" doesn't exist in the Prelude, so instead, you just write it in a different way: newlist ++ [ele]. (Compare this to x : xs == [x] ++ xs.)
tail newlist == ele becomes last newlist == ele. tail gets the list without its head, but you want to compare the last element of newlist. For that purpose, you have last. (By the way, to get the initial part of a list, you can use init.)
Note that you've also swapped the branches of your if-statement, leaving you with aaa as the answer. -edit- I see that you've updated that now ;)
Also note that this is a very slow approach. Every "snoc" and last will take longer as the answer of remdps grows, because Prelude lists are much better at "cons" and head. Try rewriting the function so that it uses "cons" instead. Hint: you'll need reverse at some point.
Furthermore, this function will not work when used with infinite lists, because of the way foldl works. It might be an interesting exercise to rewrite this function to use foldr instead.

Answer 2

The type annotation of helper suggest that ele is of type a
And you do the following test (tail(newlist) == ele), but tail if of type [a]
You cannot compare two value if different type.
This is not the only error.

Answer 3

I suggest you take a look at the docs for Data.List. Specifically for tail you'll see that the type is [a] -> [a], so obviously it doesn't return the last element of the list as one might think.
If you're looking to get a single element of out of a list (the last one) you need something with type [a] -> a. The power of haskell comes from the fact that this information is almost enough to find the right function.
Just Hoogle it!
P.S. As a side note - this approach is quite slow, as mentioned in Tinctorius' answer

Answer 4

To expand on my second comment, though this doesn't answer your question as posed, I would very much not use foldl to do this. Back in my Scheme days I'd solve it with this pet kfoldr function of mine, which I've translated to Haskell here:
-- | A special fold that gives you both left and right context at each right
-- fold step. See the example below.
kfoldr :: (l -> a -> l) -> l -> (l -> a -> r -> r) -> (l -> r) -> [a] -> r
kfoldr advance left combine seedRight [] = seedRight left
kfoldr advance left combine seedRight (x:xs) = combine left x (subfold xs)
where subfold = let newLeft = advance left x
in newLeft `seq` kfoldr advance newLeft combine seedRight
removeDuplicates :: Eq a => [a] -> [a]
removeDuplicates = kfoldr advance Nothing step (const [])
where
-- advance is the left context generator, which in this case just
-- produces the previous element at each position.
advance _ x = Just x
-- step's three arguments in this case are:
-- (a) the element to the left of current
-- (b) the current element
-- (c) the solution for the rest of the list
step Nothing x xs = x:xs
step (Just x') x xs
| x == x' = xs
| otherwise = x:xs
Haskell's Data.List library has mapAccumL and mapAccumR which are similar but they map instead of folding. There's also the intimately related scanl and scanr, which can probably be used to implement kfoldr (but I haven't bothered to try).