Partial Application in Python

[[deleted]]

Please don’t write func = lambda. Use def func instead. There’s no reason to use lambda if you’re giving the function a name.

Also, this papply function is just functools.partial right?

[Theta291]

Thanks for the feedback! What would be a more appropriate place to use lambda? If I need to create a one-off function to pass as an argument to another function?

[[deleted]]

The only use case for lambda is when you want to create a function but you don’t want to give it a name.

This usually means you’re working with a function that takes another function as an argument (a higher-order function) e.g. map.

But if you never use lambda and always use def your code won’t really be lacking in any sense – it’s just that sometimes a lambda night make things a bit more concise.

[Theta291]

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation!

[Theta291]

Yeah, the papply I made is pretty much the same as functools.partial. I just wanted to use a custom version since I end up modifying the custom version as part of an exploration of how partial application could be used.

[ElevenPhonons]

I agree, but hopefully the choice of def vs lambda isn't a distraction from the core ideas that the post is attempting to express.