9
Functional Programming Features

The idea of functional programming is to focus on writing small, expressive functions that perform the required data transformations. Combinations of functions can often create code that is more succinct and expressive than long strings of procedural statements or the methods of complex, stateful objects. This chapter focuses on functional programming features of Python more than procedural or object-oriented programming.

This provides an avenue for software design distinct from the strictly object-oriented approach used elsewhere in this book. The combination of objects with functions permits flexibility in assembling an optimal collection of components.

Conventional mathematics defines many things as functions. Multiple functions can be combined to build up a complex result from previous transformations. When we think of mathematical operators as functions, an expression like p = f(n,g(n)) can also be written as two separate functions...