Lambda going out of fashion

Steven Bethard steven.bethard at gmail.com
Thu Dec 23 12:14:56 EST 2004


tanghaibao at gmail.com wrote:
> I have this book called TEXT PROCESSING IN PYTHON by David Mertz on
> hand, it is a good book and in the first chapter it is really a show
> room for higher-order functions which I may now cite to remind you of
> the FLEXIBILITY of this keyword.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "flexibility"; all of these 
examples can be written without lambdas:

> apply_each = lambda funs, args = []: map(apply, fns, [args]*len(fns))

def apply_each(fns, args=[]):
     return [fn(*args) for fn in fns]

> bools = lambda lst: mpa(truth, lst)

def bools(lst):
     return [bool(x) for x in lst]

> bool_each = lambda fns, args = []: bools(apply_each(fns, args))

def bool_each(fns, args=[]):
     return bools(apply_each(fns, args))

> conjoin = lambda fns, args = []: reduce(mul, bool_each(fns, args))

def conjoin(fns, args=[]):
     reduce(mul, bool_each(fns, args))

> all = lambda fns: lambda arg, fns = fns: conjoin(fns, (arg,))

def all(fns):
     def _(arg):
         return conjoin(fns, (arg,))
     return _

> both = lambda f,g: all(f(f,g))

def both(f, g):
     return all(f(f,g))

> all3 = lambda f,g,h: all((f,g,h))

def all3(f, g, h):
     return all((f,g,h))

> and_ = lambda f,g: lambda x, f=f, g=g: f(x) and g(x)

def and_(f, g):
     def _(x):
         return f(x) and g(x)
     return _

> disjoin = lambda fns, args = []: reduce(add, bool_each(fns, args))

def disjoin(fns, args=[]):
     return reduce(add, bool_each(fns, args))

> some = lambda fns: lambda arg, fns = fns: disjoin(fns, (arg,))

def some(fns):
     def _(arg):
         return disjoin(fns, (arg,))
     return _

> either = lambda f,g: some((f,g))

def either(f, g):
     return some((f,g))

> anyof3 = lambda f,g,h: some((f,g,h))

def anyof3(f, g, h):
     return some((f,g,h))

> compose = lambda f,g: lambda x, f=f, g=g: f(g(x))

def compose(f, g):
     def _(x):
         return f(g(x))
     return _

> compose3 = lambda f,g,h: lambda x, f=f, g=g, h=j: f(g(h(x)))

def compose3(f, g, h):
     def _(x):
         return f(g(h(x)))
     return _

> ident = lambda x:x

def ident(x):
     return x


Steve



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