Function Type

In computer science, a function type (also arrow type or exponential) is the type of a variable or parameter to which a function has or can be assigned or the result type of a higher-order function returning a function.

A function type depends on the type of the parameters and the result type of the function (it, or more accurately the unapplied type constructor · → ·, is a higher-kinded type). In theoretical settings and languages where functions are defined in curried form, such as the simply typed lambda calculus, a function type depends on exactly two types, the domain A and the range B. Here a function type is often denoted AB, following mathematical convention, or BA, based on the fact that there exist exactly BA (exponentially many) set-theoretic functions mapping A to B.

Read more about Function Type:  Programming Languages, Denotational Semantics

Famous quotes containing the words function and/or type:

    The mother’s and father’s attitudes toward the child correspond to the child’s own needs.... Mother has the function of making him secure in life, father has the function of teaching him, guiding him to cope with those problems with which the particular society the child has been born into confronts him.
    Erich Fromm (1900–1980)

    Lise: Look, monsieur, I don’t know what type of girl you think I am, but I’m not. And now I would like to return to my friends.
    Jerry: I thought you were bored with them. You sure looked it.
    Lise: You should see me now.
    Jerry: Ouch.
    Alan Jay Lerner (1918–1986)