functional-programming

What is Functional Programming?

(From comp.lang.functional's FAQ)

Functional programming is a style of programming that emphasizes the evaluation of expressions, rather than execution of commands. The expressions in these language are formed by using functions to combine basic values. A functional language is a language that supports and encourages programming in a functional style.

Therefore instead of every segment returning a value you compound statements and they may or may not return a value. We can see a function not returning a value as not having a "side effect". For instance, this function is side effect free:

 (lambda (x y) 
   (+ x (* x x) (/ x (* x y)))) 

However this function is not:

 (lambda (x y) 
   (set! x (+ *some-global* x)) 
   (+ x (* x x) (/ x (* x y)))) 

The reason that this function has a side effect is the set! modifies the variable x before performing its computation.

This side-effect-free-ness is called referential transparency.

Spotting side effects

The simplest way to spot side effects inside of functions is to examine which functions they call. If you see a set! or a set-cdr! or any function with a ! in it, then according to the variable-naming-conventions of scheme, you know that the function being called has a side effect, and there-fore so does yours. Probably.

Anything having to do with a global variable may, or may not cause a side effect. If you see a global variable, then you might in fact be dealing with a function containing a side effect. (but you might not!)

Anything having to do with I/O, such as display I/O or file I/O, probably causes side-effects.

Note that these are not hard-and-fast rules, but generalizations.

Removing and dealing with side effects

Haskell has an excellent method of dealing with and removing side effects, called monadic-programming.

jonathan-arkell

edit-hint: Can someone with a stronger background in functional-programming and/or math fill this in a little, and provide a better definition of functional programming and side-effects? Thanks!