What Is Functional Language?

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In the world of programming, there is no such thing as a boring function. Sure, you have the boring and predictable ones—like "hello world!" and "print me please"—but what about the ones just waiting for you to discover them? The ones that can make your day. If you've ever had a conversation with your computer that responded in kind, then you've used functional language. If you've ever gotten an email from somebody who used their fingers to type on their phone, and it sounded like they were talking to you, then you've used functional language. If you've ever tried to get Siri to understand what you're saying and she understood… well, there's your answer. Functional languages are based on logical functions or procedures within their programming structure. They are similar to mathematical functions in their program flow: they go through several steps to get something done. Functional languages are the best. They're like your favorite pair of jeans or that one song that makes you cry every time you listen. They're always there for you and never let you down—even when you feel like everything's falling apart, they'll help you keep it together. They're not just some new fad or trend: functional languages have been around for decades. Lambda calculus was invented in the 1930s and has been used as a basis for several other functional languages, such as Erlang, LISP and Haskell. These days, Scala is becoming increasingly popular as well. The key to functional programming lies in its approach to doing things with computers. Whereas imperative programs describe specific instructions to get something done (like "add these two numbers"), functional programs rely on mathematical logic and functions instead (like "divide this number by this other number"). This makes it easier for programmers to write code that does what they want it to do without worrying about how exactly those instructions will be carried out by the computer itself—which means fewer bugs!

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