Gain insights into functional programming with OCaml and Haskell, explore lambda calculus, abstractions, and dataflows, and learn to apply these concepts to real-world scenarios, contrasting with Java.

ocaml_utop_haskell.tar.gz

OCaml

Functional programming is a paradigm that builds complete applications by breaking down programs into constituent functions that empowers developers to build fast, bug-resistant applications.

You’ll be introduced to functional programming with illustrative examples contrasting the more widely used imperative programming paradigm. You’ll review lambda calculus as an introduction to expressions, the building blocks of functional programs. You’ll continue with abstractions and complex data types before exploring common computation patterns. Next, you’ll learn how dataflows create whole programs out of existing functions. Finally, you’ll finish by applying your functional programming knowledge to various real-world scenarios. At each step, you’ll learn OCaml and Haskell, while contrasting imperative programming with Java.

By the end of this course, you’ll be prepared to use functional programming in your daily work and have the framework to know when to use either imperative or functional paradigms.

Mastering Functional Programming with OCaml and Haskell

## The `fold` function on lists

Often, we need to combine list elements into a single value.
For example, given a list, we might want to calculate the sum or the product of its elements. Such a computation pattern can be realized in the functional paradigm through a powerful function abstraction called `fold`.

Let's define a function, `sum_list`, to calculate the sum of all numbers from a list of integers.


# The `fold` function on lists

Often, we need to combine list elements into a single value.
For example, given a list, we might want to calculate the sum or the product of its elements. Such a computation pattern can be realized in the functional paradigm through a powerful function abstraction called `fold`.

Let's define a function, `sum_list`, to calculate the sum of all numbers from a list of integers.


Learn the higher-order function fold and see how it can be defined on lists, tree structures, and other algebraic datatypes.

Introduction

Expressions: Building Blocks of Functional Programs

Building Abstractions with Functions

Compound Data Types

Common Computation Patterns

Dataflow Programming with Functions

Applying Functional Programming to Various Domains

Conclusion

Appendix

The fold Function