Introduction to Higher Order Functions Python
Introduction to Higher Order Functions A higher order function (HOF) is a function that takes one or more functions as arguments or return a function as a result, or both. They are supported by a wide range of programming languages including the most popular ones such as Python, C++ and JavaScript. An example of Higher Order Functions that typically built-in within programming languages are: map fold filter Although they are simple concepts, knowing how to use them can very much improve the way you write code :). So let’s get started! In this tutorial we’ll use Python, without any loss of generalization the same concepts apply to any other language. 1. map The signature of map function in Python is map(function, iterable,) map operates on iterables (lists, tuples, strings or any sequence that can be iterated on with a for loop) map is used to apply a function to each item in the iterable, or in other words to map each item to something else. Example: Let’s say we have this list of nu