Learn more about computerscience with this collection
Understanding machine learning models
Improving data analysis and decision-making
How Google uses logic in machine learning
Functional Programming
Functional programming (often abbreviated FP) is the process of building software by composing pure functions, avoiding shared state, mutable data, and side effects. Functional programming is declarative rather than imperative, and application state flows through pure functions. Contrast with object oriented programming, where application state is usually shared and colocated with methods in objects.
Functional programming is a programming paradigm, meaning that it is a way of thinking about software construction based on some fundamental, defining principles
6
10 reads
Functions
A pure function is a function which:
- Given the same inputs, always returns the same output, and
- Has no side-effects
Pure functions have lots of properties that are important in functional programming.
Function composition is the process of combining two or more functions in order to produce a new function or perform some computation.
6
9 reads
Shared State
Shared state is any variable, object, or memory space that exists in a shared scope, or as the property of an object being passed between scopes.
A shared scope can include global scope or closure scopes. Often, in object oriented programming, objects are shared between scopes by adding properties to other objects.
6
5 reads
Immutability
An immutable object is an object that can’t be modified after it’s created. Conversely, a mutable object is any object which can be modified after it’s created.
Immutability is a central concept of functional programming because, without it, the data flow in your program is lossy.
6
7 reads
Side Effects
A side effect is any application state change that is observable outside the called function other than its return value. Side effects include:
- Modifying any external variable or object property (e.g., a global variable, or a variable in the parent function scope chain)
- Logging to the console
- Writing to the screen
- Writing to a file
- Writing to the network
- Triggering any external process
- Calling any other functions with side-effects.
7
6 reads
Reusability Through Higher Order Functions
A higher order function is any function that takes a function as an argument, returns a function, or both. Higher order functions are often used to:
- Abstract or isolate actions, effects, or async flow control using callback functions, promises, monads, etc…
- Create utilities which can act on a wide variety of data types
- Partially apply a function to its arguments or create a curried function for the purpose of reuse or function composition
- Take a list of functions and return some composition of those input functions.
6
6 reads
Declarative vs Imperative
Functional programming is a declarative paradigm, meaning that the program logic is expressed without explicitly describing the flow control.
- Imperative programs spend lines of code describing the specific steps used to achieve the desired results — the flow control: How to do things.
- Declarative programs abstract the flow control process, and instead spend lines of code describing the data flow: What to do. The how gets abstracted away.
6
6 reads
IDEAS CURATED BY
Other curated ideas on this topic:
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates