Mariusz Postol

Mariusz Postol

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Anonymous Function Term Meaning

Nov 12 2024 7:41 PM

A fundamental problem is the meaning of the anonymous function term. In software engineering, procedure, function, and method terms refer to a parameterized sequence of instructions. By design, a procedure is a parametrized sequence of instructions that performs a specific task by applying provided parameters. It does not return a value. It can be recognized as a custom structural statement. A function is a similar language construct to a procedure but is designed to return a value as a result of execution. Hence, in the sequence instructions, there must be a return instruction ending the sequence execution and returning calculated values. Methods could be recognized as programming language constructs used in both roles, namely function or procedure. In strongly typed languages, if a method is used in the procedure role instead of the type of returned value a special keyword is used, for example, void. All of them could be defined in declarations associating the definition with a unique in the selected context name. For procedures, an invocation statement can be defined by a programming language. Functions may be used as operands in expressions. If there is no declaration associating the name the structural statement must be recognized as anonymous. A reference pointing out the structural statement must be used to be invoked instead of a name. In this context, we may talk about anonymous procedures, functions, or methods. Concluding this we have to ask:

  • what is the origin of the term anonymous function?
  • what is the meaning of the term anonymous function?

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