Book Image

Mastering Functional Programming

Book Image

Mastering Functional Programming

Overview of this book

Functional programming is a paradigm specifically designed to deal with the complexity of software development in large projects. It helps developers to keep track of the interdependencies in the code base and changes in its state in runtime. Mastering Functional Programming provides detailed coverage of how to apply the right abstractions to reduce code complexity, so that it is easy to read and understand. Complete with explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, the book begins by covering the basics such as what lambdas are and how to write declarative code with the help of functions. It then moves on to concepts such as pure functions and type classes, the problems they aim to solve, and how to use them in real-world scenarios. You’ll also explore some of the more advanced patterns in the world of functional programming such as monad transformers and Tagless Final. In the concluding chapters, you’ll be introduced to the actor model, which you can implement in modern functional languages, and delve into parallel programming. By the end of the book, you will be able to apply the concepts of functional programming and object-oriented programming (OOP)in order to build robust applications.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)

Chapter 3

  1. You specify what needs to be done algorithmically, with the help of the low-level operations defined in the imperative collections.
  2. You specify your program as an expression, with the help of high-level operations defined in the functional collections.
  3. All the algorithms you may need are already implemented in the framework. You only need to call them by name when you need them. All the programs you may want to write can be expressed as a combination of the high-level operations implemented in the framework.

  1. Understand the program as a mathematical expression rather than an algorithm. An expression is a structure that consists of operands (data) bound together by operators (behavior).
  2. Lesser mental load on the programmer's mind. Algebraic programs usually remove side effects such as errors or time from the equation. So you do not need to think about them. This...