First-class Function - Type Theory

Type Theory

In type theory, the type of functions accepting values of type A and returning values of type B may be written as AB or BA. In the Curry-Howard correspondence, function types are related to logical implication; lambda abstraction corresponds to discharging hypothetical assumptions and function application corresponds to the modus ponens inference rule. Besides the usual case of programming functions, type theory also uses first-class functions to model associative arrays and similar data structures.

In category-theoretical accounts of programming, the availability of first-class functions corresponds to the closed category assumption. For instance, the simply typed lambda calculus corresponds to the internal language of cartesian closed categories.

Read more about this topic:  First-class Function

Famous quotes containing the words type and/or theory:

    We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.
    Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)

    The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend.
    Charles Lamb (1775–1834)