Higher-order programming: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Programming paradigm}}

'''Higher-order programming''' is a style of [[computer programming]] that uses software components, like functions, modules or objects, as values. It is usually instantiated with, or borrowed from, models of computation such as [[lambda calculus]] which make heavy use of [[higher-order function]]s.

{{one source|date=June 2019}}

{{more citations needed|date=June 2019}}

'''Higher-order programming''' is a style of [[computer programming]] that uses software components, like functions, modules or objects, as values. It is usually instantiated with, or borrowed from, models of computation such as [[lambda calculus]] which make heavy use of [[higher-order function]]s. A programming language can be considered higher-order if components, such as procedures or labels, can be used just like data. For example, these elements could be used in the same way as arguments or values.<ref>{{Cite report| author = Reynolds, John C. | title = Proceedings of the ACM annual conference on - ACM '72 | chapter = Definitional Interpreters for Higher-Order Programming Languages | year = 1972 | volume = 2 | pages = 717–740 | isbn = 9781450374927 | publisher = Association for Computing Machinery | chapter-url = https://www.classes.cs.uchicago.edu/archive/2007/fall/22100-1/papers/definterp.pdf | doi = 10.1145/800194.805852 | access-date = December 19, 2021 }}</ref>

For example, in higher-order programming, one can pass [[function (programming)|functions]] as arguments to other functions and functions can be the [[return value]] of other functions (such as in [[macro (computer science)|macros]] or for [[interpreter (computing)|interpreting]]). This style of programming is mostly used in [[functional programming]], but it can also be very useful in [[object-oriented programming]]. A slightly different interpretation of higher-order programming in the context of object-oriented programming are [[higher order message]]s, which let messages have other messages as arguments, rather than functions.

Prominent examplesExamples of languages supporting this are [[Ada (programming_language)|Ada]], [[Wolfram Language]], [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]], [[Java (programming language)|Java]], [[ECMAScript]] ([[ActionScript]], [[JavaScript]], [[JScript]]), [[F Sharp (programming language)|F#]], [[Haskell (programming language)|Haskell]], [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]] ([[Common Lisp]], [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]], [[Clojure]], others), [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]], [[Oz (programming language)|Oz]], [[Perl]], [[PHP]], [[Prolog]],<ref name=Naish1996>{{Cite report | title = Higher-order logic programming in Prolog | year = 1996 | author = Naish, Lee | publisher = Department of Computer Science, University of Melbourne |citeseerx = 10.1.1.35.4505}}</ref> [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]], [[Smalltalk]], [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]], [[ML (programming language)|ML]], and [[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]].

| title = Higher-order logic programming in Prolog

| url = http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.35.4505

| year = 1996

| author = Naish, Lee

| publisher = Department of Computer Science, University of Melbourne

| accessdate = 2010-11-02

}}</ref> [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]], [[Smalltalk]], [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]], [[ML (programming language)|ML]], and [[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]].

==See also==

*[[Prolog#Higher-order programming]]

| title = *[[Higher-order logic programming in Prolog]]

==References==