Pure functions

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A basic principle of functional programming is that it avoids changing the application state (statelessness) and variables outside it’s scope (immutability).

Pure functions are functions that:

Let’s take a look at some examples:

Pure functions must not change any variable outside their scope

Impure function

let obj = { a: 0 }

const impure = (input) => {
  // Modifies input.a
  input.a = input.a + 1;
  return input.a;
}

let b = impure(obj)
console.log(obj) // Logs { "a": 1 }
console.log(b) // Logs 1

The function changed the obj.a value that is outside it’s scope.

Pure function

let obj = { a: 0 }

const pure = (input) => {
  // Does not modify obj
  let output = input.a + 1;
  return output;
}

let b = pure(obj)
console.log(obj) // Logs { "a": 0 }
console.log(b) // Logs 1

The function did not change the object obj values

Pure functions must not rely on variables outside their scope

Impure function

let a = 1;

let impure = (input) => {
  // Multiply with variable outside function scope
  let output = input * a;
  return output;
}

console.log(impure(2)) // Logs 2
a++; // a becomes equal to 2
console.log(impure(2)) // Logs 4

This impure function rely on variable a that is defined outside it’s scope. So, if a is modified, impure’s function result will be different.

Pure function

let pure = (input) => {
  let a = 1;
  // Multiply with variable inside function scope
  let output = input * a;
  return output;
}

console.log(pure(2)) // Logs 2

The pure‘s function result does not rely on any variable outside it’s scope.

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Functional JavaScript:
* Pure functions

Table Of Contents
11 Arrays
12 Objects
14 Classes
16 Map
17 Set
24 Loops
27 Date
29 Scope
30 AJAX
35 Cookies
41 JSON
44 Fetch
45 Modules
46 Screen
64 Console
68 Symbols
72 Functional JavaScript
73 Modals
76 Events
86 Proxy
89 WeakMap
90 WeakSet
102 Tilde