Book Image

Functional Python Programming, 3rd edition - Third Edition

By : Steven F. Lott
Book Image

Functional Python Programming, 3rd edition - Third Edition

By: Steven F. Lott

Overview of this book

Not enough developers understand the benefits of functional programming, or even what it is. Author Steven Lott demystifies the approach, teaching you how to improve the way you code in Python and make gains in memory use and performance. If you’re a leetcoder preparing for coding interviews, this book is for you. Starting from the fundamentals, this book shows you how to apply functional thinking and techniques in a range of scenarios, with Python 3.10+ examples focused on mathematical and statistical algorithms, data cleaning, and exploratory data analysis. You'll learn how to use generator expressions, list comprehensions, and decorators to your advantage. You don't have to abandon object-oriented design completely, though – you'll also see how Python's native object orientation is used in conjunction with functional programming techniques. By the end of this book, you'll be well-versed in the essential functional programming features of Python and understand why and when functional thinking helps. You'll also have all the tools you need to pursue any additional functional topics that are not part of the Python language.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
16
Other Books You Might Enjoy
17
Index

5.6 Overview of writing higher-order functions

We’ll look at designing our own higher-order functions. We’ll summarize some of the process before diving into some more complex kinds of design patterns. We’ll start by looking at common data transformations, such as the following:

  • Wrap objects to create more complex objects

  • Unwrap complex objects into their components

  • Flatten a structure

  • Structure a flat sequence

These patterns can help to visualize ways higher-order functions can be designed in Python.

It can also help to recall that a Callable class definition is a function that returns a callable object. We’ll look at this as a way to write flexible functions into which configuration parameters can be injected.

We’ll defer deeper consideration of decorators until Chapter 12, Decorator Design Techniques. A decorator is also a higher-order function, but it consumes one function and returns another, making it more complex than the examples in this...