Higher Order Functions
Synopsis
A higher order function allows you to pass a function as an argument to another function. Sure, you could do this with function pointers in C, but HOFs also allow you to have functions create new functions and return them, store them in variables, and call them at will.
Before watching the videos, consider the three functions below. The first two have a lot of code duplication. Most languages give you no mechanism to avoid this. Then consider the third function. How could you call this function to provide the functionality of the first two functions?
incList [] = []
incList (x:xs) = x + 1 : incList xs
decList [] = []
decList (x:xs) = x - 1 : decList xs
map f [] = []
map f (x:xs) = f x : map f xs