Functions

  • What are functions?
  • Functions that take other functions
  • Predicate functions
  • Anonymous functions
  • Pure functions

What are functions?

  • You already know some: count, conj, first
  • Maths operators are functions too: +, -, *, /
  • A piece of code that takes values and returns a value
  • Reference: Basics of Function

Defining functions

  • We use defn to define a function.
  • We give it a name so we may call it later i.e. add
  • A Vector is used to specify the function’s arguments i.e. [x y]
  • A String can be provided for a description e.g. "Adds together..."
  • The body is the form (thing in parentheses) that follows i.e. (+ x y)
  • We call the function by creating a form with it’s name and arguments i.e. (add 1 2)
(defn add                        ; name
  "Adds together two numbers"    ; documentation
  [x y]                          ; arguments
  (+ x y))                       ; body

(add 1 2)         ;=> 3
(add (add 1 2) 4) ;=> 7

EXERCISE: Re-use a function

  • Create a new function, add-one, that takes a single argument and adds one to it.

  • It should call our add function.

Functions that take other functions

Some of the most powerful functions you can use with collections can take other functions as arguments. This is one of the most magical things about Clojure and many other programming languages. It’s a complicated idea that may not make sense at first. Let’s look at an example to learn more about it.

Reference: Higher-order Function

map function

map is a function that takes another function, along with a collection. It calls the function provided to it on each member of the collection, then returns a new collection with the results of those function calls. This is a weird concept, but it is at the core of Clojure and functional programming in general.

(map count ["a" "abc" "abcdefg"]) ;=> (1 3 7)
(map even? [0 1 2 3 4])           ;=> (true false true false true)

References: count, even?

reduce function

Let’s look at another function that takes a function. This one is reduce, and it is used to turn collections into a single value.

reduce takes the first two members of the provided collection and calls the provided function with those members. Next, it calls the provided function again–this time, using the result of the previous function call, along with the next member of the collection. reduce does this over and over again until it finally reaches the end of the collection.

(reduce + [30 60 90])              ;=> 180
(reduce str ["h" "e" "l" "l" "o"]) ;=> "hello"

Bonus section

  • Those are the main things you need to know about functions
  • You can stop here and move on to the next stage in the curriculum
  • But if you’re thirsty for more, take a look at the bonus sections that follows
  • You don’t have to do all of these, go as far as you like

EXERCISE: Find the average

  • Create a function called average
  • It should take a vector of bill amounts
  • It should return the average of those amounts.
  • Hint: You will need to use the functions reduce and count.

Assignment: let

When you are creating functions, you may want to assign names to values in order to reuse those values or make your code more readable. Inside of a function, however, you should not use def, like you would outside of a function. Instead, you should use a special form called let.

Reference: Assignment let

(defn average [values]
  (let [c (count values)
        s (reduce + values)]
    (/ s c)))
(average [1.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 5.0]) ;=> 2.4

Predicate functions

  • Higher-order functions often just want to work with a yes/ no function
  • Functions that return a boolean (true/ false) are often called predicate functions
  • Predicate functions often end with a question mark
  • You’ve already seen even?
(remove even? [1 2 3 4 5 6]) ;=> (1 3 5)

(defn less-than-10? [x] (< x 10))
(filter less-than-10? [8 9 10 11]) ;=> (8 9)

Anonymous functions

Functions without names

So far, all the functions we’ve seen have had names, like + and str and reduce. However, functions don’t need to have names, just like values don’t need to have names. We call functions without names anonymous functions. An anonymous function is created with fn, like so:

Reference: Anonymous Function

(fn [s1 s2] (str s1 " " s2))

vs. not anonymous functions

Before we go forward, you should understand that you can always feel free to name your functions. There is nothing wrong at all with doing that. However, you will see Clojure code with anonymous functions, so you should be able to understand it.

(defn join-with-space
  [s1 s2]
  (str s1 " " s2))

Anonymous function example

Why would you ever need anonymous functions? Anonymous functions can be very useful when we have functions that take other functions. Such as map or reduce, which we learned in Functions section. Let’s look at usage examples of anonymous functions:

(filter (fn [x] (< x 10)) [8 9 10 11]) ;=> (8 9)

Pure functions (inputs)

  • Where possible you should try to write pure functions
  • To be pure a function must only depend upon it’s inputs
  • A pure function always returns the same output for a given input
(def one 1)
(defn add-one [x] (+ x one))   ; depends on `one` having been declared
(add-one 5)                    ;=> 6
(def one 2)
(add-one 5)                    ;=> 7    oh dear :(

Pure functions (side-effects)

  • It must also cause no observable side-effects
  • A side effect is any result
(println "I'm impure")         ; writing to the console is a side-effect
(rand)                         ; reading (from a random number generator) is too

Side-effects

  • Side-effects are vital if you want to interact with the real world!
  • But they do make you functions less predictable (you can’t rely on the real world)…
  • … and harder to reason about (so much to hold in your head)!

Return to the first slide, or go to the curriculum outline.