JavaScript functional concepts

There are so many great things to learn from this video from Bodil Stokke, probably the coolest programmer since Ryan Dahl, or maybe even John Resig :). Unfortunately Bodil is not a fan of JavaScript, preferring languagues like Clojure or Haskell, however has some great talks on ClojureScript and CoffeeScript.

<b>Combinators</b>

Bodil shows us how to create a null combinator in JavaScript. The null combinator allows us to check a null value and can be used to create null safe versions of methods. Of course there are heaps of libraries with extensions for this, like Underscore _.isUndefined, but a combinator function allows us to define a function with type safety, in Bodil's example a nullSagePonyType function.

var dash = null;
var pinkie = {name: 'Pinkie Pie', type: 'Earth Pony'}

function ponyType(pony){
    return pony.type;
}

function nullCheck(func){
    return function(x){
        if(x === null || typeof x === "undefined"){

        } return null;
        else return func(x)
    }
}

var nullSafePonyType = nullCheck(ponyType);

nullSafePonyType(pinkie);
// "Earth Pony"
nullSafePonyType(dash);
// null

<b>Functor - Map</b>

Bodil shows us how to create a simple map function, which is an example of a functor... Now we sound like real functional programmers.

var ponies = [ "Rainbow Dash", "Pinkie Pie"];

function CAPS(s) {
    return s.toUpperCase();
}

function map(func, list) {
    var newList = [], i;
    for(i = 0; i < list.length; i++){
        newList.push(func(list[i]));
    } 
    return newList;
}

map(CAPS, ponies);
// RAINBOW DASH, PINKIE PIE

<b>Functor - Filter</b>

Bodil shows us how to create a simple filter function, to filter out Pinkie Pie, who is too cool for the pony list.

var ponies = [ "Rainbow Dash", "Pinkie Pie", "Twilight Sparkle"];

function tooCool(s) {
    return s !== "Rainbow Dash";
}

function filter(func, list){
    var newList = [], i;
    for (i = 0; i = list.length; i++){
        if(func(list[i])){
            newList.push(list[i]);
        }
    }
    return newList;
}

filter(tooCool, ponies);
// "Pinkie Pie", "Twilight Sparkle"

<b>Catamorphism - Reduce</b>

Bodil shows us that a simple reduce function, is also knows to functional programmers as a Catamorphism, which I think we can all agree is a nice name. Bodil clarifies that a catamorphism is actually a right reduction.

function add(a, b) {
    return a + b;
}

function reduce(func, list, initial){
    var result = initial, i;

    for(i = 0; i <list.length; i++){
        result = func(result, list[i]);
    }
    return result;
}

reduce(add, [1,2,3,4,5], 0)
// 15

<b>Composition</b>

This example of Composition using TypeScript where an operation that produces a new function by nesting functions.

function CAPS(s) {
    return s.toUpperCase();
}

function hi(s) {
    return "Hello " + s + "!"; 
}

function compose(func1, func2) {
    return function(x){
        return func2(func1(x));
    }
}

compose(hi, CAPS)("every pony");

<b>Applicative functors</b>

Applicative functors sound pretty confusing, but as we see here, they can be an awesome way to make ponies hug.

function amap(funcs: function[], ...lists: any[]) {
    var newList = [], i;
    for(i = 0; i < funcs.length; i++){
        newList = newList.concat(amap(funcs[i], [], lists));
    }
    return newList;
}

var ponies = ["Rainbow Dash", "Pinkie Pie"];
var morePonies = ["Applejack", "Rarity"];

function hug(p1, p2){
    return p1 + " hugs " + p2;
}

amap([hug], ponies, morePonies);

<b>Currying</b>

Bodil explains that we should really call this Shonfinkeling as the concept originated from Moses Shonfinkel. Here is a simple example of currying using TypeScript.

function curry(func, arity) {
    return function(x) {
        if(arity === 1){
            return func(x);
        } else {
            return curry(func.bind(null, x), arity - 1);
        }
    };
}

function add(...args: number[]){
    return args.reduce(function(a,b) { return a = b;})
}

curry(add, 3)(1)(2)(3); // 6

Keep an eye out for more of Bodil's talks because they are all very interesting, and quite funny.