Name Rascal/Concepts/Functions

Synopsis Functions and pattern-directed invocation.

Description Functions allow the definition of frequently used operations. They have a name and formal parameters. They are explicitly declared and are fully typed. Functions can also be used as values thus enabling higher-order functions. Rascal is a higher-order language in which functions are first-class values.

See Function for details.

Examples Here is an example of a function that counts the number of assignment statements in a program:

int countAssignments(PROGRAM P){
    int n = 0;
    visit (P){
    case asgStat(_, _):
         n += 1;
    }
    return n;
}

Consider the following use of higher-order functions:

int double(int x) { return 2 * x; }

int triple(int x) { return 3 * x; }

int f(int x, int (int) multi){ return multi(x); }

The functions double and triple simply multiply their argument with a constant. Function f is, however, more interesting. It takes an integer x and a function multi (with integer argument and integer result) as argument and applies multi to its own argument. f(5, triple) will hence return 15. Function values can also be created anonymously as illustrated by the following, alternative, manner of writing this same call to f:

f(5, int (int y){return 3 * y;});

Here the second argument of f is an anonymous function.

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