Difference between anonymous and named functions?

Questions / Help
1

Can Someone please explain difference between anonymous and named functions ? where we need to use Anonynous and Named functions?

From the Agents tutorial they use

@doc “”"
Gets a value from the bucket by key.
“”"
def get(bucket, key) do
Agent.get(bucket, &Map.get(&1, key))
end

in the above example they have used named function Map.get/3 as Anonymous function by using Capture opertaor. Is there any particular reason to use ?

2

an anonymous function is not attached to a module.

example

my_func = fn x -> IO.puts x end

and You call it like this

my_func.(“yo”)

Please note the dot

Map.get is a named function

3

Is there Any particular reason to use named function Map.get/3 as anonymous function as &Map.get(&1, key)?

4

Passing a function is so usual, that there is this & &1 notation, but it does not mean that Map.get is anonymous.

You can do like something like this with a more complex function

do_what_you_want = fn x -> # do some stuff end
map |> Enum.map(&do_what_you_want.(&1))

Otherwise, You should have done

map |> Enum.map(fn x -> # do some stuff end)

And note that

&Map.get(&1, key)

is equivalent to

fn x -> Map.get(x, key) end

It is not equivalent to Map.get(x, key)

1 Like
5

Thanks man , i found this stack page with more info, but i am not clear about

This code will fail to compile because every time you see a def, you get an empty variable scope. That is an important difference between them

what is mean by empty variable scope?

6

Well, simply that there are no variables bound in the scope.

7

from this example

x = 1
def hello(y) do
x + y
end

after we declare def, do u mean that only y is bound to the scope of the function alone

8 
iex(1)> a = 1
1
iex(2)> f = fn -> IO.puts a end
#Function<...>
iex(3)> f.()
1
:ok
iex(4)> defmodule F do
...(4)>   def g, do: IO.puts(a)
...(4)> end
** (CompileError) iex:5: function a/0 undefined
... stripped ...

As you can see here, the defed function has no access to the a that was bound outside, its scope is therefore “empty”

1 Like
9

As a statement that is incorrect. An anonymous function is attached to the module that creates it [source].

Execution of the anonymous function will force the module that created it to load - and if that module cannot be loaded, execution of the anonymous function will fail - no matter how simple that anonymous function might be.

Example session:

# File: alpha.ex
defmodule Alpha do

  def make_fun,
    do: fn -> "Greetings from module #{__MODULE__}" end

end

# File: bravo.ex
defmodule Bravo do
  def dessicate(fun, path) do
    File.write path, (:erlang.term_to_binary fun), [:binary]
  end

  def hydrate(path) do
    {:ok, content} = File.read path
    :erlang.binary_to_term content
  end
end

iex(1)> ls()
     alpha.ex
     bravo.ex
iex(2)> c("alpha.ex")
[Alpha]
iex(3)> c("bravo.ex")
[Bravo]
iex(4)> :code.is_loaded Alpha
{:file, :in_memory}
iex(5)> :code.is_loaded Bravo
{:file, :in_memory}
iex(6)> fun = Alpha.make_fun
#Function<0.111841791/0 in Alpha.make_fun/0>
iex(7)> fun.()
"Greetings from module Elixir.Alpha"
iex(8)> Bravo.dessicate fun, "greetings"
:ok
iex(9)> 
BREAK: (a)bort (c)ontinue (p)roc info (i)nfo (l)oaded
       (v)ersion (k)ill (D)b-tables (d)istribution
a
$ iex
iex(1)> ls()
      alpha.ex
      bravo.ex
      greetings
iex(2)> c("bravo.ex")
[Bravo]
iex(3)> :code.is_loaded Alpha
false
iex(4)> :code.is_loaded Bravo
{:file, :in_memory}
iex(5)> fun = Bravo.hydrate "greetings"
#Function<0.111841791/0 in Alpha>
iex(6)> fun.()
** (UndefinedFunctionError) undefined function
    #Function<0.111841791/0 in Alpha>()
iex(6)> c("alpha.ex")              
[Alpha]
iex(7)> fun.()       
"Greetings from module Elixir.Alpha"
iex(8)> :code.is_loaded Alpha          
{:file, :in_memory}
iex(9)> c("alpha.ex",".")              
warning: redefining module Alpha (current version defined in memory)
  alpha.ex:2
[Alpha]
iex(10)> c("bravo.ex",".")
warning: redefining module Bravo (current version defined in memory)
  bravo.ex:2
[Bravo]
iex(11)> ls()
     Elixir.Alpha.beam
     Elixir.Bravo.beam
     alpha.ex
     bravo.ex
     greetings
iex(12)> 
BREAK: (a)bort (c)ontinue (p)roc info (i)nfo (l)oaded
       (v)ersion (k)ill (D)b-tables (d)istribution
a
$ iex
iex(1)> ls()
     Elixir.Alpha.beam
     Elixir.Bravo.beam
     alpha.ex
     bravo.ex
     greetings
iex(2)> r(Bravo)
warning: redefining module Bravo (current version loaded from Elixir.Bravo.beam)
  bravo.ex:2

{:reloaded, Bravo, [Bravo]}
iex(3)> :code.is_loaded Alpha
false
iex(4)> :code.is_loaded Bravo
{:file, :in_memory}
iex(5)> fun = Bravo.hydrate "greetings"
#Function<0.111841791/0 in Alpha>
iex(6)> :code.is_loaded Alpha          
false
iex(7)> fun.()
"Greetings from module Elixir.Alpha"
iex(8)> :code.is_loaded Alpha
{:file, '/Users/wheatley/sbox/elx/trial/anon/Elixir.Alpha.beam'}
iex(9)>
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