Higher-order function
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In mathematics and computer science, a higher-order function (also functional, functional form or functor) is a function that does at least one of the following:
- takes one or more functions as arguments (i.e., procedural parameters),
- returns a function as its result.[disputed ]
All other functions are first-order functions. In mathematics higher-order functions are also termed operators or functionals. The differential operator in calculus is a common example, since it maps a function to its derivative, also a function.
In the untyped lambda calculus, all functions are higher-order; in a typed lambda calculus, from which most functional programming languages are derived, higher-order functions that take one function as argument are values with types of the form .
General examples[edit]
The map
function, found in many functional programming languages, is one example of a higher-order function. It takes as arguments a function f and a list of elements, and as the result, returns a new list with f applied to each element from the list. Another very common kind of higher-order function in those languages which support them are sorting functions which take a comparison function as a parameter, allowing the programmer to separate the sorting algorithm from the comparisons of the items being sorted. The C standard function qsort
is an example of this.
Other examples of higher-order functions include fold, function composition, and integration.
Direct support[edit]
The examples are not intended to compare and contrast programming languages, but to serve as examples of higher-order function syntax
In the following examples, the higher-order function twice
takes a function, and applies the function to some value twice. If twice
has to be applied several times for the same f
it preferably should return a function rather than a value. This is in line with the "don't repeat yourself" principle.
Python[edit]
>>> def twice(function):
... return lambda x: function(function(x))
>>> def f(x):
... return x + 3
>>> g = twice(f)
>>> print g(7)
13
JavaScript[edit]
Further information:
JavaScript
var twice = function(f, v) {
return f(f(v));
};
var f = function(v) {
return v + 3;
};
console.log(twice(f, 7)); // 13
Go[edit]
Further information:
Go (programming language)
func twice(f func(int) int, v int) int {
return f(f(v))
}
func main() {
f := func(v int) int {
return v + 3
}
twice(f, 7) // returns 13
}