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The names "lambda abstraction", "lambda function", and "lambda expression" refer to the notation of function abstraction in lambda calculus, where the usual function f (x) = M would be written (λx. M), and where M is an expression that uses x. Compare to the Python syntax of lambda x: M.
Lambda calculus is Turing complete, that is, it is a universal model of computation that can be used to simulate any Turing machine. [3] Its namesake, the Greek letter lambda (λ), is used in lambda expressions and lambda terms to denote binding a variable in a function.
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:
The lambda calculus, developed in the 1930s by Alonzo Church, is a formal system of computation built from function application.In 1937 Alan Turing proved that the lambda calculus and Turing machines are equivalent models of computation, [37] showing that the lambda calculus is Turing complete.
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 function's identity is based on its implementation. A lambda calculus function (or term) is an implementation of a mathematical function. In the lambda calculus there are a number of combinators (implementations) that satisfy the mathematical definition of a fixed-point combinator.
The supplied function is first applied to a supplied parameter and then successively to its own result. The end result is not the numeral 3 (unless the supplied parameter happens to be 0 and the function is a successor function). The function itself, and not its end result, is the Church numeral 3.
Dirichlet lambda function, λ(s) = (1 – 2 −s)ζ(s) where ζ is the Riemann zeta function; Liouville function, λ(n) = (–1) Ω(n) Von Mangoldt function, Λ(n) = log p if n is a positive power of the prime p; Modular lambda function, λ(τ), a highly symmetric holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane