Book Image

Hands-On Functional Programming with C++

By : Alexandru Bolboaca
Book Image

Hands-On Functional Programming with C++

By: Alexandru Bolboaca

Overview of this book

Functional programming enables you to divide your software into smaller, reusable components that are easy to write, debug, and maintain. Combined with the power of C++, you can develop scalable and functional applications for modern software requirements. This book will help you discover the functional features in C++ 17 and C++ 20 to build enterprise-level applications. Starting with the fundamental building blocks of functional programming and how to use them in C++, you’ll explore functions, currying, and lambdas. As you advance, you’ll learn how to improve cohesion and delve into test-driven development, which will enable you in designing better software. In addition to this, the book covers architectural patterns such as event sourcing to help you get to grips with the importance of immutability for data storage. You’ll even understand how to “think in functions” and implement design patterns in a functional way. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to write faster and cleaner production code in C++ with the help of functional programming.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Functional Building Blocks in C++
7
Section 2: Design with Functions
12
Section 3: Reaping the Benefits of Functional Programming
17
Section 4: The Present and Future of Functional Programming in C++

Purely functional design patterns

So far, we've seen how some of the classic object-oriented design patterns can be turned into a functional variant. But can we imagine design patterns that stem from functional programming?

Well, we've actually already used some of them. map/reduce (or transform/accumulate in STL) is one example. Most of the higher-order functions (such as filter, all_of, and any_of, among others) are also examples of patterns. However, we can go even further and explore a common, but opaque, design pattern that comes from functional programming.

The best way to understand it is by starting from specific problems. First, we'll see how we can maintain state in an immutable context. Then, we'll learn about the design pattern. Finally, we'll see it in action in another context.

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