What Is Functional Programming?
Functional programming is a programming paradigm emphasizing writing programs as a series of independent, stateless functions operating on data structures. In available programming, data is treated as immutable, and parts are pure, meaning they always produce the same result for a given set of inputs and don’t cause side effects. The focus is on reducing complexity and promoting code reuse by breaking down problems into smaller, reusable functions, which can help improve code reliability and maintainability.
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
Functional programming and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) are two different programming paradigms with distinct differences in their approach to software development.
In OOP, the focus is on objects and their interactions, while in functional programming, the focus is on functions and immutability.
In OOP, objects have states and behaviors, and changes to the form of an object are made by calling methods. In functional programming, data is immutable, and functions are pure, meaning they don’t modify the state or have side effects. Instead, new values are returned from functions.
OOP emphasizes encapsulation and inheritance, while functional programming emphasizes composition and higher-order functions.
Another difference is that OOP often uses mutable data structures, while functional programming emphasizes using immutable data structures.
Overall, OOP and functional programming are both practical approaches to software development, and choosing between them depends on the project’s specific requirements and the developers’ preferences.
Popular Programming Languages
Some of the popular programming languages that support functional programming are:
| Programming Language | Description |
|---|---|
| Haskell | A purely functional programming language known for its static solid typing and lazy evaluation. |
| Lisp | One of the oldest programming languages, known for its symbolic expression and list processing capabilities. |
| Scheme | A minimalist dialect of Lisp known for its simplicity and elegance. |
| ML | Short for “Meta Language”, it’s a functional programming language with a robust type system. |
| Erlang | A concurrent functional programming language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications. |
| F# | A functional-first programming language that runs on the .NET platform. |
| OCaml | A general-purpose functional programming language with imperative and object-oriented features. |
| Closure | I assume you meant “Clojure”. It’s a functional programming language on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). |
| Scala | A hybrid functional and object-oriented programming language that runs on the JVM. |
| Elixir | A functional, concurrent, general-purpose programming language that runs on the Erlang virtual machine (BEAM). |
These are just a few examples, and many other languages provide some degree of functional programming capabilities.