Book Image

Functional Python Programming - Second Edition

Book Image

Functional Python Programming - Second Edition

Overview of this book

If you’re a Python developer who wants to discover how to take the power of functional programming (FP) and bring it into your own programs, then this book is essential for you, even if you know next to nothing about the paradigm. Starting with a general overview of functional concepts, you’ll explore common functional features such as first-class and higher-order functions, pure functions, and more. You’ll see how these are accomplished in Python 3.6 to give you the core foundations you’ll build upon. After that, you’ll discover common functional optimizations for Python to help your apps reach even higher speeds. You’ll learn FP concepts such as lazy evaluation using Python’s generator functions and expressions. Moving forward, you’ll learn to design and implement decorators to create composite functions. You'll also explore data preparation techniques and data exploration in depth, and see how the Python standard library fits the functional programming model. Finally, to top off your journey into the world of functional Python, you’ll at look at the PyMonad project and some larger examples to put everything into perspective.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)

Implementing simulation with monads


Monads are expected to pass through a kind of pipeline: a monad will be passed as an argument to a function and a similar monad will be returned as the value of the function. The functions must be designed to accept and return similar structures.

We'll look at a simple pipeline that can be used for simulation of a process. This kind of simulation may be a formal part of a Monte Carlo simulation. We'll take the phrase Monte Carlo simulation literally and simulate a casino dice game, Craps. This involves some stateful rules for a fairly complex simulation.

There is some strange gambling terminology involved, for which we apologize. Craps involves someone rolling the dice (a shooter) and additional bettors. The game has two phases of play:

  • The first roll of the dice is called a come out roll. There are three conditions:
    • If the dice total is 7 or 11, the shooter wins. Anyone betting on the pass line will be paid off as a winner, and all other bets lose. The game...