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In computer programming, apply applies a function to a list of arguments. Eval and apply are the two interdependent components of the eval-apply cycle, which is the essence of evaluating Lisp, described in SICP. [1] Function application corresponds to beta reduction in lambda calculus.
A higher-order function is a function that takes a function as an argument or returns one as a result. This is commonly used to customize the behavior of a generically defined function, often a looping construct or recursion scheme. Anonymous functions are a convenient way to specify such function arguments. The following examples are in Python 3.
In contrast, partial function application refers to the process of fixing a number of arguments to a function, producing another function of smaller arity. Given the definition of f {\displaystyle f} above, we might fix (or 'bind') the first argument, producing a function of type partial ( f ) : ( Y × Z ) → N {\displaystyle {\text{partial ...
Assign an identifier, name, to a function; Define formal parameters with a name and data type for each; Assign a data type to the return value, if any; Specify a return value in the function body; Call a function; Provide actual parameters that correspond to a called function's formal parameters; Return control to the caller at the point of call
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 function Sum has two parameters, named addend1 and addend2. It adds the values passed into the parameters, and returns the result to the subroutine's caller (using a technique automatically supplied by the C compiler). The code which calls the Sum function might look like this:
Methods on objects are functions attached to the object's class; the syntax instance. method (argument) is, for normal methods and functions, syntactic sugar for Class. method (instance, argument). Python methods have an explicit self parameter to access instance data , in contrast to the implicit self (or this ) in some other object-oriented ...
A simple example of a higher-ordered function is the map function, which takes, as its arguments, a function and a list, and returns the list formed by applying the function to each member of the list. For a language to support map, it must support passing a function as an argument.