Last updated on September 3rd, 2024
The phrase “known yet unknown” captures the paradox of technological trends perfectly. These trends have the potential to revolutionize the software development landscape in a matter of days. So, why is this relevant now? Have you come across the term “Functional Programming”? While you may think it’s a current buzzword, functional programming actually dates back over 60 years. It’s somewhat of a ‘known yet unknown’ concept within the development community.
However, interest in functional programming is surging as developers are eager to learn and adopt it, harnessing its power to create modern, secure, and valuable applications swiftly. In this blog post, we will delve into functional programming and explore the top 15 functional programming languages that are currently in demand among developers worldwide.
What Is A Functional Programming Language?
Functional programming is a programming paradigm that serves as a framework or model for addressing specific challenges in computer science. At its core, functional programming focuses on constructing software using pure functions, emphasizing immutability and statelessness.
It is a declarative approach where function definitions are structured as trees of expressions that transform input values into output values. This contrasts with the imperative programming paradigm, where a series of statements manipulate a program’s state over time.
Functions in functional programming serve as instructions designed to achieve specific results. The emphasis is placed on pure functions, which do not interact with external factors and consistently produce the same output when provided with identical inputs. Unlike object-oriented programming (OOP), where methods can alter the state of an object, pure functions maintain a fixed state, making them ideal for concurrent execution since there is no shared state between them.
This paradigm excels in data analysis and machine learning, attracting programmers with its robust features, such as the absence of null values, support for higher-order functions, error handling through exceptions, immutable data structures, pattern matching, and function composition operators.
Advantages Of Functional Programming:
- Shorter Code: Functional programming often allows developers to express complex operations succinctly, leading to more concise code.
- Easy Debugging: The use of pure functions simplifies the debugging process, as they are isolated from external states and consistently yield the same results.
- Modularity: Functional programs promote modular design, enabling developers to build reusable and independent components.
- Parallel Programming: The stateless nature of functions facilitates concurrent execution, making it easier to leverage multi-core processors.
- Increased Maintainability: With clearer separation of logic, functional code is typically easier to maintain and update.
- Code Readability: The declarative style of programming enhances readability, allowing others to understand the code with less effort.
Many functional programming languages are prevalent across various industries, with several other programming languages incorporating functional features. This paradigm finds particular application in areas like web development, statistics, financial analysis, and machine learning.
Also Read: Python Programming Language: An ideal for Web Application Development
Best Functional Programming Languages To Learn
Here is a compilation of widely-used functional programming languages, along with other languages that offer functional programming capabilities or blend functional and object-oriented programming styles.
Elixir
Elixir has gained substantial popularity as a functional, general-purpose programming language that operates on the BEAM virtual machine. Known for its effectiveness in developing low-latency, fault-tolerant, and distributed applications, Elixir builds upon the robust features of Erlang while also integrating concepts from Ruby and Clojure.
This unique combination allows it to support high levels of concurrency and swift performance, making it a preferred choice for well-known companies like Discord, PagerDuty, Pinterest, and Bleacher Report, which cater to millions of users simultaneously. Created by José Valim, Elixir was designed with the intent to facilitate the development of large-scale applications and websites. Its efficiency in processing large volumes of data quickly makes it particularly valuable in industries such as telecommunications, eCommerce, and finance.
The Phoenix framework, developed in Elixir, is celebrated for its outstanding performance, reliability, and concurrency capabilities. The growing Elixir ecosystem, backed by an active community and core development team, fosters high-quality libraries and provides support for learners and professionals alike. For those interested in diving into functional programming, Elixir is an excellent starting point—give it a try!
Erlang
Did you know? Erlang, the general-purpose programming language used to develop WhatsApp, excels in concurrency and fault tolerance. Designed specifically for distributed systems, it is well-suited for real-time applications, telecommunications, and server management.
Originally proprietary software created for Ericsson in 1986 by Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding, and Mike Williams, Erlang has evolved into an open-source language that includes the Erlang/OTP (Open Telecom Platform)—a comprehensive suite of libraries, tools, and middleware that enhances its capabilities.
Many large-scale and highly scalable systems, such as Facebook, the AXD301 ATM switch, and RabbitMQ, rely on Erlang for their operations. Its versatility allows it to be employed across various industries, including fintech, healthcare, automotive, IoT, gaming, blockchain, and telecommunications.
Common Lisp
Common Lisp is a dialect of the Lisp programming language and serves as a general-purpose, dynamic, and multi-paradigm language that accommodates procedural, functional, and object-oriented programming styles. As one of the earliest programming languages, Lisp has spawned numerous dialects throughout its history and has significantly influenced modern software development practices.
The most prominent general-purpose dialects include Racket, Common Lisp, Scheme, and Clojure. With support for first-class functions, it facilitates evolutionary and incremental approaches to software development. Common Lisp is notably utilized in a variety of prominent software and systems across sectors, including ITA Software, London Tube, Mirai, PWGL, Boeing, Airbus, Yahoo, Grammarly, NASA, and Microsoft. Its primary applications revolve around research initiatives, prototyping, and artificial intelligence development.
Haskell
Haskell is often regarded as the foundational language for functional programming. This general-purpose language is both statically typed and purely functional, offering features such as type inference and lazy evaluation. Older than Java, Haskell has paved the way for numerous advanced programming concepts. It is extensively utilised in academic settings, research, and various industrial applications.
One of its defining characteristics is that Haskell functions are devoid of side effects, adhering strictly to functional programming principles. Key features of Haskell include lazy evaluation, lambda expressions, pattern matching, type classes, type polymorphism, and list comprehension. Prominent systems developed in Haskell include GHC, Agda, Pandoc, Cryptol, the Cardano Blockchain platform, Target, Pugs, Xmonad, and Bluespec among others. As a gateway into the realm of functional programming, Haskell is particularly favoured in academic and research contexts.
F#
F# is a versatile programming language that prioritizes functional programming while also supporting imperative and object-oriented styles. As a cross-platform language that runs on the Common Language Infrastructure (.NET), it shares similarities with OCaml, albeit with some variations. Belonging to the ML language family, F# is capable of generating both JavaScript and GPU code. Backed by Microsoft and the F# Software Foundation, it boasts strong community support and an extensive ecosystem. F# finds its applications across a range of domains, including web APIs, data manipulation, data science, machine learning, and interactive applications. Its functional-first features, such as type inference, first-class functions, pattern matching, and object-oriented capabilities, make it particularly effective for robust and high-performance data science and machine learning projects.
Clojure
Clojure is a dynamic and functional dialect of Lisp that operates on the Java platform. It offers immutable and persistent data structures, empowering developers to manage identity and state explicitly, which significantly enhances the creation of concurrent and efficient applications.
Developed by Rich Hickey, Clojure was designed as a contemporary version of Lisp tailored for functional programming. The language treats functions as first-class entities and includes a robust macro system, as well as a read-eval-print loop.
Additionally, it supports lazy sequences, recursion, a reactive agent-based architecture, and higher-order functions. While its primary environment is Java, Clojure can be implemented on various platforms.
Racket
Racket is a dialect of Lisp that has evolved from Scheme, presenting itself as a modern, versatile, and multi-paradigm programming language. It comes as a comprehensive multiplatform distribution that encompasses the language itself, a standard library, an integrated development environment (IDE), development tools, and support for additional languages.
Racket excels at idea exploration and is ideal for rapid prototyping. It finds applications in commercial software development as well as web applications. The DrRacket IDE is particularly prominent in educational settings, often used to teach both Scheme and Racket in computer science courses.
Racket is predominantly utilized for scripting, education in computer science, and research, with its core language being well-known for its extensive macro system which facilitates the creation of domain-specific languages and tailored language constructs.
OCaml
OCaml, also known as Objective Caml, is a versatile, general-purpose programming language that builds upon the Caml dialect of ML by incorporating object-oriented features. This free and open-source language is managed by the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation.
OCaml adeptly merges functional, imperative, and object-oriented programming within an ML-like type system. Its robust feature set includes a static type system, type inference, pattern matching, parametric polymorphism, exception handling, and tail recursion. While some well-known companies like Bloomberg, Facebook, Jane Street Capital, and Citrix Systems leverage OCaml in their production environments, it faces challenges with a smaller community and limited educational resources compared to other functional languages.
Despite its age, roughly on par with Java, OCaml lacks extensive libraries and framework support, contributing to its lower popularity in the functional programming landscape.
Idris
Idris is another purely functional programming language that incorporates various features inspired by mainstream functional programming and proof assistants. Its notable characteristics include dependent types, lazy evaluation, and totality checkers. Idris promotes a practice known as Type-Driven Development, wherein types serve as essential tools in the programming process, enhancing both the performance and accuracy of applications.
The language emphasizes effective management of side effects and offers robust support for embedded domain-specific languages, making the code more maintainable and easier to test. Idris stands out due to its advanced type system, which further distinguishes it from other languages.
PureScript
PureScript is a strongly-typed, purely functional programming language that compiles to JavaScript. Its syntax is reminiscent of Haskell, and it includes features like persistent data structures, higher-kinded types, pattern matching, type classes, functional dependencies, and higher-rank polymorphism.
Created by Phil Freeman in 2013, PureScript is commonly employed for building web applications, servers, and beyond. With an engaged community and robust tooling available, it has become a more approachable choice for those new to programming.
Wolfram
The Wolfram Language is a versatile, multi-paradigm programming language created by Wolfram Research. It prioritizes functional programming, rule-based programming, and symbolic computation. First introduced with Mathematica in 1988, it has since found significant applications in various fields such as data computing, algorithm-driven programming, and rapid prototype development.
Its capabilities extend to analytics, IoT solutions, educational applications, updates to legacy systems, and deployments across multiple platforms. The Wolfram Language plays a crucial role in advancing concepts in research, education, and scientific inquiry.
Scala
Scala is a modern, multi-paradigm programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), effectively integrating both functional and object-oriented programming paradigms. While it embraces functional programming principles, it is not solely functional; rather, it presents a seamless blend of object-oriented and functional styles in a high-level, concise syntax. Scala is statically typed and extensible, offering complete interoperability with Java.
In terms of functional programming capabilities, it incorporates features from languages such as Scheme, Standard ML, and Haskell, including lazy evaluation, higher-order types, immutability, pattern matching, and a robust type system that supports algebraic data types, raw strings, and optional parameters. Many leading organizations, including Foursquare, The New York Times, Airbnb, SoundCloud, Verizon, Morgan Stanley, Firebase, LinkedIn, Twitter, MeetUp, Coursera, Apple, Walmart, and Databricks, utilize Scala. The language has garnered numerous accolades, being recognized as a popular choice among JVM languages and celebrated for its versatility in programming.
Read More: Programming Languages Compatible with Flutter
Python
Python is widely recognized and does not require extensive introduction. While it is not strictly a functional language, it accommodates functional and declarative programming styles. Its design encourages functional programming principles through features like functions, generator expressions, list comprehensions, sets, and dictionaries, drawing inspiration from languages such as Haskell and Standard ML. Python adheres to the philosophy that “there should be one—and preferably only one—obvious way to do it.”
This language has gained immense popularity for developing a variety of applications and systems. One of Python’s greatest assets is its vibrant and extensive community, which continually contributes to its evolution. It is particularly prevalent in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, web application scripting, scientific computing, and information security, with many components being developed using Python.
Kotlin
Kotlin is a versatile, cross-platform programming language that is statically typed and designed for general-purpose use. It can seamlessly accommodate functional programming approaches, providing robust support for features like function types, lambdas, and higher-order functions. Renowned for its conciseness, type safety, and speed, Kotlin is fully interoperable with Java, making it an attractive option for developers.
It is utilized in a wide array of applications, including server-side and client-side web applications, desktop software, and native development, and it is recognized as a first-class language for Android development. Many prominent companies, such as Square, Pinterest, Basecamp, and Corda, adopt Kotlin, benefiting from its vibrant and active community that offers numerous support forums, events, and resources for developers.
JavaScript
JavaScript is predominantly recognized as a scripting language rather than a functional one, although it does incorporate functional programming aspects. It is a high-level language that is often just-in-time compiled and embraces multiple programming paradigms. With features such as dynamic typing, first-class functions, and prototype-based object orientation, JavaScript stands out as a flexible tool for developers.
Alongside CSS and HTML, it is considered one of the essential technologies powering the World Wide Web. JavaScript facilitates event-driven, functional, and imperative programming styles, sharing several similarities with Scheme. Its versatility allows it to be utilized extensively in nearly every application and across the web.
Best Functional Programming Language: Talk Of The Town
Functional programming is currently in vogue, providing developers with a means to tackle complex challenges more straightforwardly. This approach enhances code maintainability, accuracy, and modularity. While it contrasts with object-oriented programming (OOP), both paradigms ultimately strive for performance, stability, and reliability.
It’s important to note that OOP should not be entirely dismissed or replaced by functional programming; rather, a thoughtful combination of the two is essential for constructing modern, scalable, and dependable systems. Depending on the specific needs of your project, you can select the programming paradigm that best fits your requirements. Nonetheless, functional programming offers several advantages worth considering when developing new software products.
Important: 10 Trending Programming Languages for Software Development
Conclusion: Finding the Right Balance
In conclusion, JavaScript is an exceptional language that offers developers a diverse range of features and capabilities. Its dynamic nature allows for quick prototyping and iteration, making it ideal for web development. However, as with any programming language, it is crucial to understand its strengths and limitations and utilize it appropriately. Functional programming languages are currently gaining popularity due to their ability to simplify complex problems and improve code quality.
