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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.
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:
For example, in Python the "square" function can be expressed as a lambda expression as follows: ( lambda x : x ** 2 ) The above example is an expression that evaluates to a first-class function.
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).
A function's identity is based on its implementation. A lambda calculus function (or term) is an implementation of a mathematical function. In the lambda calculus there are a number of combinators (implementations) that satisfy the mathematical definition of a fixed-point combinator.
The eval() vs. exec() built-in functions (in Python 2, exec is a statement); the former is for expressions, the latter is for statements; Statements cannot be a part of an expression—so list and other comprehensions or lambda expressions, all being expressions, cannot contain statements.
Dirichlet lambda function, λ(s) = (1 – 2 −s)ζ(s) where ζ is the Riemann zeta function; Liouville function, λ(n) = (–1) Ω(n) Von Mangoldt function, Λ(n) = log p if n is a positive power of the prime p; Modular lambda function, λ(τ), a highly symmetric holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane
In the untyped lambda calculus, where the basic types are functions, lifting may change the result of beta reduction of a lambda expression. The resulting functions will have the same meaning, in a mathematical sense, but are not regarded as the same function in the untyped lambda calculus. See also intensional versus extensional equality.