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The names "lambda abstraction", "lambda function", and "lambda expression" refer to the notation of function abstraction in lambda calculus, where the usual function f (x) = M would be written (λx. M), and where M is an expression that uses x. Compare to the Python syntax of lambda x: M.
The examples 1 and 2 denote different terms, differing only in where the parentheses are placed. They have different meanings: example 1 is a function definition, while example 2 is a function application. The lambda variable x is a placeholder in both examples. Here, example 1 defines a function .
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 term closure is often used as a synonym for anonymous function, though strictly, an anonymous function is a function literal without a name, while a closure is an instance of a function, a value, whose non-local variables have been bound either to values or to storage locations (depending on the language; see the lexical environment section below).
This creates a higher-order function, and passing this higher function itself allows anonymous recursion within the actual recursive function. This can be done purely anonymously by applying a fixed-point combinator to this higher order function. This is mainly of academic interest, particularly to show that the lambda calculus has recursion ...
An example of such a function is the function that returns 0 for all even integers, and 1 for all odd integers. In lambda calculus , from a computational point of view, applying a fixed-point combinator to an identity function or an idempotent function typically results in non-terminating computation.
For example, a programmer may write a function in source code that is compiled to machine code that implements similar semantics. There is a callable unit in the source code and an associated one in the machine code, but they are different kinds of callable units – with different implications and features.
The Carmichael lambda function of a prime power can be expressed in terms of the Euler totient. Any number that is not 1 or a prime power can be written uniquely as the product of distinct prime powers, in which case λ of the product is the least common multiple of the λ of the prime power factors.