Scala higher-order functions

A higher-order function either takes other functions as arguments or returns a function as its result.

We can use this example script:

def squared(x: Int): Int = x * x
def cubed(x: Int): Int = x * x * x

def process(a: Int, processor: Int => Int): Int = {processor(a) }

val fiveSquared = process(5, squared)
val sevenCubed = process(7, cubed)

We define two functions: one squares the number passed, and the other cubes the number passed.

Next, we define a higher-order function that takes a number to work on and a processor to apply.

Lastly, we call each function. For example, we call process() with 5 and the squared function. The process() function passes 5 to the squared() function and returns the result:

We take advantage of Scala's engine automatically printing out variable values to see the  expected result.

These functions are not doing very much. When I ran them, it took a few seconds for the results to display. I think there is a big performance hit using higher...