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In computer programming, a nested function (or nested procedure or subroutine) is a named function that is defined within another, enclosing, block and is lexically scoped within the enclosing block – meaning it is only callable by name within the body of the enclosing block and can use identifiers declared in outer blocks, including outer ...
Nested classes are also a feature of the D programming language, Visual Basic .NET, Ruby, C++ and C#. In Python, it is possible to nest a class within another class, method or function. C++ has nested classes that are like Java's static member classes, except that they are not declared with "static".
This can be only top-level blocks like functions and classes, nested blocks like nested functions and methods, or all blocks, notably control-flow blocks. This allows one to get an overview of code, easily navigating and rearranging it, and to drill down into more detail as needed, without being distracted by other code.
Non-local variables are the primary reason it is difficult to support nested, anonymous, higher-order and thereby first-class functions in a programming language. If the nested function or functions are (mutually) recursive, it becomes hard for the compiler to know exactly where on the call stack the non-local variable was allocated, as the frame pointer only points to the local variable of ...
The term closure is often used as a synonym for anonymous function, though strictly, an anonymous function is a function literal without a name, while a closure is an instance of a function, a value, whose non-local variables have been bound either to values or to storage locations (depending on the language; see the lexical environment section below).
A related concept is inner types, also known as inner data type or nested type, which is a generalization of the concept of inner classes. C++ is an example of a language that supports both inner classes and inner types (via typedef declarations). [30] [31] A local class is a class defined within a procedure or function. Such structure limits ...
nested blocks of imperative source code such as nested if-clauses, while-clauses, repeat-until clauses etc. information hiding: nested function definitions with lexical scope; nested data structures such as records, objects, classes, etc. nested virtualization, also called recursive virtualization: running a virtual machine inside another ...
The trampoline is a small piece of code which is constructed on the fly on the stack when the address of a nested function is taken. The trampoline sets up the static link pointer, which allows the nested function to access local variables of the enclosing function. The function pointer is then simply the address of the trampoline.