Functional Python Programming

Python isn’t all about object-oriented programming. Discover a valuable way of thinking about code design through a function-first approach – and learn when you need to use it. Now with detailed exercises at the end of every chapter!

Key Features

• •  Learn how, when, and why to adopt functional elements in your projects
• •  Explore the Python modules essential to functional programming, like itertools and functools
• •  Revised to cover new features of Python 3.10, exercises at the end of every chapter, and more

Book Description

Not enough developers understand the benefits of functional programming, or even what it is. Author Steven Lott demystifies the approach, teaching you how to improve the way you code in Python and make gains in memory use and performance.

Starting from the fundamentals, this book shows you how to apply functional thinking and techniques in a range of scenarios, with examples centered around data cleaning and exploratory data analysis. You’ll learn how to use generator expressions, list comprehensions, and decorators to your advantage. You don’t have to abandon object-oriented design completely, though – you’ll also see how Python’s native object-orientation is used in conjunction with functional programming techniques.

By the end of this book, you’ll be well versed in the essential functional programming features of Python, and understand why and when functional thinking helps. You’ll also have all the tools you need to pursue any additional functional topics that are not part of the Python language.

What you will learn

• •  Use Python’s libraries to avoid the complexities of state-changing classes
• •  Leverage built-in higher-order functions to avoid rewriting common algorithms
• •  Write generator functions to create lazy processing
• •  Design and implement decorators for functional composition
• •  Make use of Python type annotations to describe parameters and results of functions
• •  Apply functional programming to concurrency and web services
• •  Explore the PyMonad library for stateful simulations

Who this book is for

The functional paradigm is very useful for programmers working in data science, but any Python developer who wants to create more reliable, succinct, and expressive code will have much to learn from this book.

No prior knowledge of functional programming is required to get started, though Python programming knowledge is assumed. A running Python environment is essential.

Table of Contents
1. Understanding Functional Programming
2. Introducing Essential Functional Concepts
3. Functions, Iterators, and Generators
4. Working with Collections
5. Higher-Order Functions
6. Recursions and Reductions
7. Complex Stateless Objects
8. The ltertools Module
9. ltertools for Combinatorics – Permutations and Combinations
10. The Functools Module
11. The Toolz Package
12. Decorator Design Techniques
13. The PyMonad Library
14. The Multiprocessing, Threading, and Concurrent.Futures Modules
1 5. A Functional Approach to Web Services
16. A Chi-Squared Case Study

About the Author

Steven F. Lott has been programming since computers were large, expensive, and rare. Working for decades in high tech has given him exposure to a lot of ideas and techniques, some bad, but most are useful and helpful to others.
 

Steven has been working with Python since the ’90s, building a variety of tools and applications. He’s written a number of titles for Packt Publishing, include Mastering Object-Oriented Python, the Modern Python Cookbook, and Python Object-Oriented Programming, Fourth Edition.

He’s a technomad, and lives on a boat that’s usually located on the east coast of the US. He tries to live by his mother’s words “Don’t come home until you have a story.”