Python Lambda functions

A lambda function is a (usually small) function that is defined without a name. A lambda function is declared as an expression and then either assigned to a variable or passed as a parameter to another function.

Syntax

lambda arguments: expression

Example

my_function = lambda x : x.capitalize()

Here we define a function and assign that function to a variable. Everything in Python is just an object, and a function is no different and can be assigned to variables and passed to other functions. So a lambda function is simply a function that is not defined using def and has no name. It's an Anonymous function.

character = 'a'
my_function(character)

Output

A

Lambda functions usually get passed to other functions. Here's an example. Say you had a list of values and you wanted to do something to each value, but that 'something' changed depending on what you needed. You could do achieve that using a lambda function:

def modify_array(value_array, lambda_function)
    """This method modifies each entry in the array by applying lambda_function"""
    return [ lambda_function(value) for value in value_array ]

myList = ['a', 'b', 'c']

# capitalize each item in the array
values = modify_array(myList, lambda x : x.capitalize())
print(values)
# output will be ['A', 'B', 'C']

# duplicate each item in the array
values = modify_array(myList, lambda x : x + x)
print(values)
# output will be ['aa', 'bb', 'cc']

In each case we called the same modify_array method, but passed in a different lambda function to perform an operation inside the modify_array function.