Welcome back! In your previous lessons, you learned about modules and structs in Elixir. These concepts helped you write more organized and efficient code. Today, we're diving into another fascinating topic — anonymous functions.
Anonymous functions are fundamental in Elixir and many other functional programming languages. They allow you to create functions without giving them a name. You'll find them especially useful for short-lived tasks and for passing functions as arguments to other functions.
In this section, we will cover:
- How to define an
anonymous function. - How to invoke (or call) an
anonymous function. - How to pass multiple arguments to an
anonymous function. - Practical uses of
anonymous functionsin your code.
We'll start with some basic examples to get you familiar with the syntax and usage:
In these examples:
- We define an
anonymous functiongreetthat takes a single parameter,name, and prints a greeting message. We then call thisanonymous functionby passing the argument"Alice". - We define another
anonymous functionaddthat takes two parameters,aandb, and returns their sum. We then call thisanonymous functionby passing the arguments5and , and print the result.
Anonymous functions are significant for several reasons:
-
Flexibility: You can create and use functions on the fly without worrying about naming them. This is particularly useful for small, quick tasks.
-
Higher-Order Functions:
Elixirallows you to passanonymous functionsas arguments to other functions. This capability enriches your coding possibilities by enabling higher-order functions and functional programming techniques. We'll explore higher-order functions in the next course of this learning journey. -
Modularity:
Anonymous functionshelp you write more modular and concise code. By breaking down complex operations into smaller anonymous functions, you can make your code easier to read and maintain.
Are you excited to harness the power of anonymous functions in Elixir? Let’s move on to the practice section where you'll get hands-on experience with these flexible and powerful tools!
