OCaml tutorials
Your Help is Needed
Many of the tutorials below need updating and tutorials on many new topics are needed. Please contribute by visiting this project's repo on GitHub; you may use the issue tracker there to request or offer new tutorials. Thanks!
- Mega Crash course on OCaml ecosystem + code
- Basics
- Structure of OCaml Programs
- Modules
- Maps (Dictionaries)
- Sets
- Hash Tables
- Comparison of Standard Containers
- Data Types and Matching
- Pointers in OCaml
- Null Pointers, Asserts, and Warnings
- Functional Programming
- If Statements, Loops, and Recursion
- Labels
- Common Error Messages
- OCaml Programming Guidelines
- Formatting and Wrapping Text
- 99 Problems (solved) in OCaml
- OCamlbuild
- Error handling
- Objects
- Introduction to Gtk
- Garbage Collection
- Performance and Profiling
- Calling C libraries
- Calling Fortran libraries
- OCaml and the Web
- Standard Library Examples
- Setting up OCaml projects with OASIS
- Compiling OCaml projects
- Command-Line Arguments
- File manipulation
- Camlp4 3.10
- Filenames and Extensions
- Streams
- Stream Expressions
- Acknowledgements
External Links
Learn by Doing
- Try OCaml Online (by OCamlPro) allows you to immediately start learning OCaml in your browser, without installing it. Compiled as a single Javascript page, it gives you the full power of OCaml, even when your are disconnected from the network.
- PLEAC-OCaml provides OCaml solutions to the complete set of problems originally posed in the very successful Perl Cookbook. OCaml is one of only 3 languages for which the full set of solutions has been provided.
- Rosetta is a programming chrestomathy site. It provides solutions to the same task in many languages. Currently there are few tasks with OCaml solutions provided, but perhaps you would like to add new solutions.
Tutorials on OCaml
- The OCaml System (by Inria) is the official user's manual. The first part provides an introduction to the core language, objects and classes, and modules. Previous versions are here.
- How to wrap C functions to OCaml (by Florent Monnier) explains in an understandable way how to write C stubs to call C functions from OCaml and back. It features a lot of examples.
- OCaml for scientific computation (by Thomas Fischbacher), covers a broad sample of OCaml, from the basics to the C API.
WikiBooks on OCaml
- fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/OCaml (in French): Introduction on functional programming using OCaml.
- fr.wikiversity.org/wiki/Premiers_pas_en_OCaml (in French): The basics of the OCaml language.
Tutorials on Tools
There are also tutorials that can be useful to learn how to use popular tools and libraries.
- Camlp4 Tutorial (by Jake Donham), to build syntax extensions for OCaml with Camlp4.
- OCamllex
Tutorial
(by SooHyoung Oh), on how to create lexers using the
ocamllextool of the standard distribution. - OCamlyacc
Tutorial
(by SooHyoung Oh), on how to create parsers using the
ocamlyacctool of the standard distribution. - LablGTK 2.0 Tutorial (by SooHyoung Oh), on how to create graphical applications with the LablGTK library.
- Camlp5
- A Guide to Extension Points in OCaml (by whitequark), on using PPX, the syntax extensions API that superseded camlp4.
Coming From Another Language
These tutorials help learn OCaml from the perspective of being familiar with another language.
Advanced Tutorials & Articles
- Manual
- Detecting use cases for GADTs in OCaml, (by Mads Hartmann), on using generalized algebraic data types in writing interpreters.