Anonymous Functions
Anonymous functions, also known as lambda functions, are functions defined without a name, typically used for short, inline operations. They are first-class citizens in many programming languages, meaning they can be assigned to variables, passed as arguments, or returned from other functions. This concept enables concise and functional programming patterns, such as mapping, filtering, and reducing collections.
Developers should learn anonymous functions to write more expressive and compact code, especially in functional programming contexts or when working with higher-order functions. They are ideal for one-time use cases, like callbacks in event-driven programming or transformations in data processing pipelines, as they avoid cluttering the namespace with unnecessary function names. For example, in JavaScript, they are commonly used with array methods like `map()` and `filter()`.