Functional programming: Difference between revisions

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Functional programming is sometimes treated as synonymous with [[purely functional programming]], a subset of functional programming which treats all functions as [[Deterministic system|deterministic]] mathematical [[Function (mathematics)|functions]], or [[pure function]]s. When a pure function is called with some given arguments, it will always return the same result, and cannot be affected by any mutable [[State (computer science)|state]] or other [[Side effect (computer science)|side effects]]. This is in contrast with impure [[Procedure (computer science)|procedures]], common in [[imperative programming]], which can have side effects (such as modifying the program's state or taking input from a user). Proponents of purely functional programming claim that by restricting side effects, programs can have fewer [[Software bug|bugs]], be easier to [[Debugging|debug]] and [[Software testing|test]], and be more suited to [[formal verification]].<ref name="hudak1989">{{cite journal |last=Hudak |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Hudak |title=Conception, evolution, and application of functional programming languages |journal=ACM Computing Surveys |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=359–411 |date=September 1989 |url=http://www.dbnet.ece.ntua.gr/~adamo/languages/books/p359-hudak.pdf |doi=10.1145/72551.72554 |s2cid=207637854 |accessdate=2013-08-10 |archivedate=2016-01-31 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131083528/http://www.dbnet.ece.ntua.gr/~adamo/languages/books/p359-hudak.pdf |url-status=deviated }}</ref><ref name="hughesWhyFPMatters"/>

Functional programming has its roots in [[academia]], evolving from the [[lambda calculus]], a formal system of computation based only on functions. Functional programming has historically been less popular than imperative programming, but many functional languages are seeing use today in industry and education, including [[Common Lisp]], [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]],<ref name="clinger1987"/><ref name="hartheimer1987"/><ref name="kidd2007"/><ref name="cleis2006"/> [[Clojure]], [[Wolfram Language]],<ref name="reference.wolfram.com">{{cite web |title=Wolfram Language Guide: Functional Programming |url=http://reference.wolfram.com/language/guide/FunctionalProgramming.html |year=2015 |access-date=2015-08-24}}</ref><ref name="Amath-CO"/> [[Racket (programming language)|Racket]],<ref name="racket-video-games"/> [[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]],<ref name="erlang-faq"/><ref name="armstrong2007"/><ref name="larson2009"/> [[Elixir (programming language)|Elixir]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Elixir Programming Language|url=https://elixir-lang.org/|access-date=2021-02-14}}</ref> [[OCaml]],<ref name="minksy2008"/><ref name="leroy2007"/> [[Haskell]],<ref name="haskell-industry"/><ref name="hudak2007"/> and [[F Sharp (programming language)|F#]].<ref name="quantFSharp">{{cite conference |last=Mansell |first=Howard |title=Quantitative Finance in F# |url=http://cufp.galois.com/2008/abstracts.html#MansellHoward |year=2008 |conference=CUFP 2008 |access-date=2009-08-29 |archivedate=2015-07-08 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708125937/http://cufp.galois.com/2008/abstracts.html#MansellHoward |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="businessAppsFSharp">{{cite conference |last=Peake |first=Alex |title=The First Substantial Line of Business Application in F# |url=http://cufp.galois.com/2009/abstracts.html#AlexPeakeAdamGranicz |year=2009 |conference=CUFP 2009 |access-date=2009-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017070140/http://cufp.galois.com/2009/abstracts.html#AlexPeakeAdamGranicz |archive-date=2009-10-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Lean (proof assistant)|Lean]] is a functional programming language commonly used for verifying mathematical theorems.<ref>{{cite conference |conference=Conference on Automated Deduction |title=The Lean 4 Theorem Prover and Programming Language |last1=de Moura |first1=Leonardo |last2=Ullrich |first2=Sebastian |date=July 2021 |book-title=Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence |volume=12699 |pages=625–635 |issn=1611-3349 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-79876-5_37 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Functional programming is also key to some languages that have found success in specific domains, like [[JavaScript]] in the Web,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Banz|first=Matt|date=2017-06-27|title=An introduction to functional programming in JavaScript|url=https://opensource.com/article/17/6/functional-javascript|access-date=2021-01-09|website=Opensource.com|language=en}}</ref> [[R (programming language)|R]] in statistics,<ref name="useR"/><ref name="Chambers"/> [[J (programming language)|J]], [[K (programming language)|K]] and [[Q (programming language from Kx Systems)|Q]] in financial analysis, and [[XQuery]]/[[XSLT]] for [[XML]].<ref name="Novatchev"/><ref name="Mertz"/> Domain-specific declarative languages like [[SQL]] and [[Lex (software)|Lex]]/[[Yacc]] use some elements of functional programming, such as not allowing [[mutable object|mutable values]].<ref name="Chamberlin_Boyce"/> In addition, many other programming languages support programming in a functional style or have implemented features from functional programming, such as [[C++11]], [[C Sharp (programming language)|C#]],<ref>{{Citation|title=Functional Programming with C# - Simon Painter - NDC Oslo 2020| date=8 August 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvyTB4aMI4o| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/gvyTB4aMI4o| archive-date=2021-10-30|language=en|access-date=2021-10-23}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[Kotlin (programming language)|Kotlin]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://kotlinlang.org/docs/tutorials/kotlin-for-py/functional-programming.html|title=Functional programming - Kotlin Programming Language|website=Kotlin|access-date=2019-05-01}}</ref> [[Perl]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Dominus |first=Mark J. |author-link=Mark Jason Dominus |title=Higher-Order Perl |publisher=[[Morgan Kaufmann]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-55860-701-9 |title-link=Higher-Order Perl}}</ref> [[PHP]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Holywell |first=Simon |title=Functional Programming in PHP |publisher=php[architect] |year=2014 |isbn=9781940111056}}</ref> [[Python (programming language)|Python]],<ref name="AutoNT-13">{{cite web |url=https://www.python.org/community/pycon/dc2004/papers/24/metaclasses-pycon.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530030205/http://www.python.org/community/pycon/dc2004/papers/24/metaclasses-pycon.pdf |archive-date=30 May 2009 |title=Python Metaclasses: Who? Why? When? |last=The Cain Gang Ltd. |access-date=27 June 2009 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> [[Go (programming language)|Go]],<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=22 December 2020|title=GopherCon 2020: Dylan Meeus - Functional Programming with Go|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqs8n5Uk5OM|access-date=|website=YouTube}}</ref> [[Rust (programming language)|Rust]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Functional Language Features: Iterators and Closures - The Rust Programming Language|url=https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch13-00-functional-features.html|access-date=2021-01-09|website=doc.rust-lang.org}}</ref> [[Raku (programming language)|Raku]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Vanderbauwhede |first=Wim |url=https://wimvanderbauwhede.github.io/articles/decluttering-with-functional-programming/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728013926/https://wimvanderbauwhede.github.io/articles/decluttering-with-functional-programming/|archive-date=28 July 2020|title=Cleaner code with functional programming |date=18 July 2020 |access-date=6 October 2020}}</ref> [[Scala (programming language)|Scala]],<ref name="effective-scala"/> and [[Java (programming language)|Java (since Java 8)]].<ref name="java-8-javadoc"/>

== History ==

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Immutability of data can in many cases lead to execution efficiency by allowing the compiler to make assumptions that are unsafe in an imperative language, thus increasing opportunities for [[inline expansion]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Immutability specification and its applications |author1=Igor Pechtchanski |author2=Vivek Sarkar |journal=Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience |volume=17 |issue=5–6 |pages=639–662 |year=2005 |doi=10.1002/cpe.853 |s2cid=34527406}}</ref> Even if the involved copying that may seem implicit when dealing with persistent immutable data structures might seem computationally costly, some functional programming languages, like [[Clojure]] solve this issue by implementing mechanisms for safe memory sharing between ''formally'' ''immutable'' data.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An In-Depth Look at Clojure Collections |url=https://www.infoq.com/articles/in-depth-look-clojure-collections/ |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=InfoQ |language=en}}</ref> [[Rust (programming language)|Rust]] distinguishes itself by its approach to data immutability which involves immutable [[Reference (computer science)|references]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=References and Borrowing - The Rust Programming Language |url=https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch04-02-references-and-borrowing.html |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=doc.rust-lang.org}}</ref> and a concept called ''lifetimes.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Validating References with Lifetimes - The Rust Programming Language |url=https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch10-03-lifetime-syntax.html |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=doc.rust-lang.org}}</ref>

Immutable data with separation of identity and state and [[Shared-nothing architecture|shared-nothing]] schemes can also potentially be more well-suited for [[Parallel computing|concurrent and parallel]] programming by the virtue of reducing or eliminating the risk of certain concurrency hazards, since concurrent operations are usually [[Linearizability|atomic]] and this allows eliminating the need for locks. This is how for example <code>java.util.concurrent</code> classes are implemented, where some of them are immutable variants of the corresponding classes that are not suitable for concurrent use.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Concurrent Collections (The Java™ Tutorials > Essential Java Classes > Concurrency) |url=https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/collections.html |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=docs.oracle.com}}</ref> Functional programming languages often have a concurrency model that instead of shared state and synchronization, leverages [[message passing]] mechanisms (such as the [[actor model]], where each actor is a container for state, behavior, child actors and a message queue).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-28 |title=Understanding The Actor Model To Build Non-blocking, High-throughput Distributed Systems - Scaleyourapp |url=https://scaleyourapp.com/actor-model/ |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=scaleyourapp.com |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |lastlast1=Cesarini |firstfirst1=Francesco |title=Erlang programming: a concurrent approach to software development |last2=Thompson |first2=Simon |publisher=O'Reilly Media, Inc. |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-596-55585-6 |edition=1st |publication-date=2009-06-11 |page=6 |language=en}}</ref> This approach is common in [[Erlang (programming language)|Erlang]]/[[Elixir (programming language)|Elixir]] or [[Akka (toolkit)|Akka]].

[[Lazy evaluation]] may also speed up the program, even asymptotically, whereas it may slow it down at most by a constant factor (however, it may introduce [[memory leak]]s if used improperly). Launchbury 1993<ref name=launchbury1993/> discusses theoretical issues related to memory leaks from lazy evaluation, and O'Sullivan ''et al.'' 2008<ref>{{cite web |url=http://book.realworldhaskell.org/read/profiling-and-optimization.html#x_eK1 |title=Chapter 25. Profiling and optimization |publisher=Book.realworldhaskell.org |access-date=2011-06-20}}</ref> give some practical advice for analyzing and fixing them.