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FunctionalProgramming Notes

Functional Programming (FP) is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions, emphasizing pure functions, immutability, higher-order functions, and recursion. It offers benefits such as easier testing and debugging, safer concurrency, and more concise code, but may present challenges in readability and stack management. Typical use cases include data transformations, parallel processing, and declarative coding.

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1 views2 pages

FunctionalProgramming Notes

Functional Programming (FP) is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions, emphasizing pure functions, immutability, higher-order functions, and recursion. It offers benefits such as easier testing and debugging, safer concurrency, and more concise code, but may present challenges in readability and stack management. Typical use cases include data transformations, parallel processing, and declarative coding.

Uploaded by

Scott Richards
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Functional Programming

Class Notes: Functional Programming (FP)

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# Functional Programming (FP)

## What is FP?

- A programming paradigm where computation is treated as the evaluation of mathematical

functions.

- Avoids changing state and mutable data.

## Core Concepts

- **Pure functions:** Same inputs always give same outputs. No side effects.

- **Immutability:** Data isn't changed; instead, new data structures are returned.

- **Higher-order functions:** Functions that take functions as arguments or return functions.

- **Recursion:** Often used instead of loops.

## Example

def square(x):

return x * x

nums = [1, 2, 3, 4]

squares = list(map(square, nums))

print(squares) # [1, 4, 9, 16]


- `map` is a higher-order function. `square` is pure.

## Benefits

- Easier to test and debug.

- Concurrency is safer because no shared mutable state.

- Code can be more concise and expressive.

## Common Pitfalls

- Can be hard to read for newcomers (many small functions).

- Recursion can lead to stack overflows if not managed well.

## Typical Use Cases

- Data transformations.

- Parallel processing (pure functions are easier to distribute).

- Declarative code (describes what, not how).

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