Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In Python, functions are first-class objects that can be created and passed around dynamically. Python's limited support for anonymous functions is the lambda construct. An example is the anonymous function which squares its input, called with the argument of 5:
A higher-order function is a function that takes a function as an argument or returns one as a result. This is commonly used to customize the behavior of a generically defined function, often a looping construct or recursion scheme. Anonymous functions are a convenient way to specify such function arguments. The following examples are in Python 3.
[1] [2] John C. Reynolds gives a detailed account of the numerous discoveries of continuations. [3] A function written in continuation-passing style takes an extra argument: an explicit "continuation"; i.e., a function of one argument. When the CPS function has computed its result value, it "returns" it by calling the continuation function with ...
Calling f with a regular function argument first applies this function to the value 2, then returns 3. However, when f is passed to call/cc (as in the last line of the example), applying the parameter (the continuation) to 2 forces execution of the program to jump to the point where call/cc was called, and causes call/cc to return the value 2.
As alert requires a string, form produces a string from the result of calculate; The get-word! values (i.e., :calc-product and :calc-sum) trigger the interpreter to return the code of the function rather than evaluate with the function. The datatype! references in a block! [float! integer!] restrict the type of values passed as arguments.
A simple example of a higher-ordered function is the map function, which takes, as its arguments, a function and a list, and returns the list formed by applying the function to each member of the list. For a language to support map, it must support passing a function as an argument.
Higher-order programming is a style of computer programming that uses software components, like functions, modules or objects, as values. It is usually instantiated with, or borrowed from, models of computation such as lambda calculus which make heavy use of higher-order functions. A programming language can be considered higher-order if ...
In lambda calculus, each function has exactly one parameter. What is thought of as functions with multiple parameters is usually represented in lambda calculus as a function which takes the first argument, and returns a function which takes the rest of the arguments; this is a transformation known as currying.