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4.12 Fundamentals of functional
programming
Status
4.12.1 Functional programming paradigm
4.12.1.1 Function type
Know that a function, f, has a function type
f: A → B (where the type is A → B, A is the argument type, and B is the result type).
Know that A is called the domain and B is called the co-domain.
Know that the domain and co-domain are always subsets of objects in some
data type.
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ℹ Loosely speaking, a function is a rule that, for each element in some set A
of inputs, assigns an output chosen from set B, but without necessarily
using every member of B. For example,
f : {a, b, c, … z} → {0, 1, 2, … , 25} could use the rule that maps a to
0, b to 1, and so on, using all values which are members of set B.
The domain is a set from which the function’s input values are chosen.
The co-domain is a set from which the function’s output values are
chosen. Not all of the co-domain’s members need to be outputs.
4.12.1.2 First-class object
Know that a function is a first-class object in functional programming languages
and in imperative programming languages that support such objects. This means
that it can be an argument to another function as well as the result of a function call.
ℹ First-class objects (or values) are objects which may:
appear in expressions
be assigned to a variable
be assigned as arguments
be returned in function calls.
For example, integers, floating-point values, characters and strings are
first class objects in many programming languages.
4.12.1.3 Function application
Know that function application means a function applied to its arguments.
4.12 Fundamentals of functional programming 2
ℹ The process of giving particular inputs to a function is called function
application, for example add(3, 4) represents the application of the
function add to integer arguments 3 and 4.
The type of the function is
f : integer × integer → integer
where integer × integer is the Cartesian product of the set integer with
itself.
Although we would say that function f takes two arguments, in fact it
takes only one argument, which is a pair, for example (3, 4).
4.12.1.4 Partial function application
Know what is meant by partial function application for one, two and three
argument functions and be able to use the notations shown opposite.
ℹ The function add takes two integers as arguments and gives an integer as
a result. Viewed as follows in the partial function application scheme:
add: integer → (integer → integer)
add 4 returns a function which when applied to another integer adds 4 to
that integer.
The brackets may be dropped so function add becomes add:
integer → integer → integer
The function add is now viewed as taking one argument after another and
returning a result of data type integer.
4.12.1.5 Composition of functions
Know what is meant by composition of functions.
4.12 Fundamentals of functional programming 3
ℹ The operation functional composition combines two functions to get a new
function.
f :A→B
function g ○ f , called the composition of g and f , is a function whose
domain is A and co-domain is C .
g ○ f = (x + 2)3
4.12.2 Writing functional programs
4.12.2 Functional language programs
Show experience of constructing simple programs in a functional programming
language.
ℹ The following is a list of functional programming languages that could be
used:
Haskell
Standard ML
Scheme
Lisp.
Other languages with built-in support for programming in a functional
paradigm as well as other paradigms are:
Python
F#
C#
Scala
Java 8
Delphi XE versions onwards
VB.NET 2008 onwards.
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Higher-order functions.
A function is higher-order if it takes a function as an argument or returns a
function as a result, or does both.
Have experience of using the following in a functional programming language:
map
filter
reduce or fold
ℹ map is the name of a higher-order function that applies a given function to
each element of a list, returning a list of results.
filter is the name of a higher-order function that processes a data
structure, typically a list, in some order to produce a new data structure
containing exactly those elements of the original data structure that match
a given condition.
reduce or fold is the name of a higher-order function which reduces a list
of values to a single value by repeatedly applying a combining function to
the list values.
4.12.3 Lists in functional programming
4.12.3.1 List processing
Be familiar with representing a list as a concatenation of a head and a tail.
Know that the head is an element of a list and the tail is a list.
Know that a list can be empty.
Describe and apply the following operations:
return head of list
return tail of list
test for empty list
return length of list
construct an empty list
4.12 Fundamentals of functional programming 5
prepend an item to a list
append an item to a list
Have experience writing programs for the list operations mentioned above in a
functional programming language or in a language with support for the functional
paradigm.
ℹ For example, in Haskell the list [4, 3, 5] can be written in the
form head:tail where head is the first item in the list and tail is the
remainder of the list. In the example, we have 4:[3, 5]. We call 4
the head of the list and [3, 5] the tail.
[] is the empty list.
4.12 Fundamentals of functional programming 6
