In List.fold, does accumulator have to be the same type as list?

Question

I'm trying to loop through a mapping list (type_a) and update a different mapping list (type_b). Both lists are different. For List.fold, does the accumulator have to be the same type as list? ie, if we have

let fn = fun (acc, a: type_b * type_a list) : type_b = ...

let my_list : type_a list = Map.literal[...]
let acc : type_b = ...
let sum_of_elements : int = List.fold_left fn acc my_list

Does acc have to be of type_a? I'm getting a few errors about the fields not matching, but I'm not sure if that is because this is not allowed, or something else..

Answer 1

The type signature for List.fold_left is

val fold_left : ('acc * 'item -> 'acc) -> 'acc -> 'item list -> 'acc

That means 'acc can be of any type, e.g.

let fn = fun (acc, a: (int, int) map * int) : (int, int) map -> acc
let my_map : (int,int) map = Map.empty
let folded_map : (int,int) map = List.fold_left fn my_map ([] : int list)