Functional Programming

Programming paradigm where programs are constructed by applying and composing functions.

Functional programming is a programming paradigm that is based on the concept of mathematical functions and the application of functions to transform data. It is a declarative programming style, which means that the programmer specifies what the program should do, rather than how it should do it.

In functional programming, functions are treated as first-class citizens, which means that they can be passed as arguments to other functions, returned as values from functions, and stored in data structures. This allows for the creation of higher-order functions, which are functions that operate on other functions.

Functional programming languages are designed to support the functional programming paradigm and provide features that make it easier to write functional code. Some examples of functional programming languages include Lisp, Haskell, and Erlang.

Functional programming has become increasingly popular in recent years, and is used in a variety of applications, including data processing, machine learning, and web development. It is known for its simplicity, expressiveness, and ability to handle complex problems in a declarative manner.

Resources

• The lambda calculus, developed in the 1930s by Alonzo Church.