# Strictly positive data types

We follow a syntactic description of strictly positive inductive data types.

An inductive type is said to be strictly positive if it does not occur or occurs strictly positively in the types of the arguments of its constructors. A name qualified as strictly positive for an inductive type if it never occurs at a negative position in the types of the arguments of its constructors. We refer to a negative position as those occurrences on the left of an arrow in a type constructor argument.

In the example below, the type X occurs strictly positive in c0 and negatively at the constructor c1. Therefore, X is not strictly positive.

axiom B : Type;
inductive X {
c0 : (B -> X) -> X;
c1 : (X -> X) -> X;
};


We could also refer to positive parameters as such parameters occurring in no negative positions. For example, the type B in the c0 constructor above is on the left of the arrow B->X. Then, B is at a negative position. Negative parameters need to be considered when checking strictly positive data types as they may allow to define non-strictly positive data types.

In the example below, the type T0 is strictly positive. However, the type T1 is not. Only after unfolding the type application T0 (T1 A) in the data constructor c1, we can find out that T1 occurs at a negative position because of T0. More precisely, the type parameter A of T0 is negative.

inductive T0 (A : Type) {
c0 : (A -> T0 A) -> T0 A;
};

inductive T1 {
c1 : T0 T1 -> T1;
};


## Bypass the strict positivity condition

To bypass the positivity check, a data type declaration can be annotated with the keyword positive. Another way is to use the CLI global flag --no-positivity when typechecking a Juvix File.

\$ cat tests/negative/MicroJuvix/NoStrictlyPositiveDataTypes/E5.mjuvix
module E5;
positive
inductive T0 (A : Type){
c0 : (T0 A -> A) -> T0 A;
};
end;


## Examples of non-strictly data types

• NSPos is at a negative position in c.

inductive Empty {};
inductive NSPos {
c : ((NSPos -> Empty) -> NSPos) -> NSPos;
};

• Bad is not strictly positive beceause of the negative parameter A of Tree.

inductive Tree (A : Type) {
leaf : Tree A;
node : (A -> Tree A) -> Tree A;
};


• A is a negative parameter.
inductive B (A : Type) {