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Mastering Functional Composition

Samuel Pouyt
7 min readMay 10, 2023

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Functional composition is a technique used in functional programming to combine multiple functions into a single function. It involves the application of one function to the output of another function. This technique can be used to create complex functions by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable functions. In this article, we will explore functional composition in detail and provide examples of how it can be used in practice.

Understanding functional composition

In functional programming, functions are treated as first-class citizens, meaning they can be passed around like any other value. This makes it possible to combine multiple functions into a single function using functional composition.

Functional composition involves chaining multiple functions together, with the output of one function becoming the input to the next. The result is a new function that performs the same operations as the original functions, but in a more concise and readable way.

Consider the following two functions:

def add_one(x):
return x + 1

def double(x):
return x * 2

These functions can be combined using functional composition to create a new function that first adds one to its input, and then doubles the result:

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Samuel Pouyt
Samuel Pouyt

Written by Samuel Pouyt

Tech Lead/Software engineer. I am currently working on Legal Technologies and Computational Law. I enjoy opera, philosophy nature and literature.

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