Functional programming is a rapidly expanding paradigm. In this article, we will look at the most popular functional programming languages. Along this path, we’ll learn about the functional programming language, the properties that functional languages share, and languages that aren’t functional yet contain functional traits.
People study functional programming for a variety of reasons. Some wish to improve their programming skills, while others want to find a new career. Others, however, believe that functional programming corresponds more closely with their cognitive style. Things are evolving, and every developer is eager to learn, use, and exploit it to produce contemporary, safe, and valued solutions swiftly.
So, continue reading and exploring to learn about the different functional programming language examples in 2024 and much more.
Table of Contents
What is Functional Language?
Functional programming is a technique of programming that allows us to code everything using mathematical functions. An excellent method to appreciate the logic of functional code programming is to explore an event that occurred more than 50 years ago. In the latter part of the 1960s, a programming paradigm arose with the goal of improving code quality while lowering development time. It was termed organized programming.
Above all, several functional programming languages perform well in the data science area. There is no definitive method to tell if a language is a functional programming language. However, by custom, functional programming advocates and promotes functional programming as the primary mentality for the language. They accomplish this by making something simple, difficult, or impossible.
Several languages arose to encourage structured programming, and several existing languages were updated to better accommodate it. One of the most noteworthy aspects of these structured programming dialects was the disappearance of a long-standing feature—the GOTO declaration.
Top 10 Most Popular Functional Programming Languages
Here is the different functional programming languages list you can use:
Elixir
Elixir is the most widely used programming language around the world. It is a functional, universal, concurrent programming language operating on the BEAM virtual computer. It is well-known for its ability to develop low-latency, resilient, and distributed applications.
Elixir is a highly concurrent and low-delay programming language that is often used to create scalable and diverse systems. It also supports low latency and fault tolerance. When you need to create an app that can handle a large number of requests, Elixir is the answer since it combines the greatest features of Erlang and Go, Ruby, and Clojure languages and allows multithreaded apps.
It depends on Erlang and incorporates Erlang, Ruby, and Clojure features to provide a high-concurrency, low-latency technology programming language. Discord, PagerDuty, Pinterest, Buzzfeed Report, Inverse, The Outline, and more well-known brands utilize it to serve millions of users simultaneously. José Valim invented it intending to create a language suitable for large-scale websites and apps.
Erlang
Do you know? Erlang is a way to program WhatsApp. It is a general-purpose, simultaneous, functional programming language with a garbage collector deliberately built for concurrency, transportation, and fault tolerance. Erlang is ideal for developing distributed, real-time, and simultaneous systems, including telephony, applications involving databases, servers, and highly reliable systems.
A process-oriented programming language employs lightweight processes. The brilliance of the language rests in its capacity to generate functions that interact with one another. It is regarded as one of the greatest functional programming languages for message-based systems such as chatbots, messaging queues, and blockchain-based applications. The language’s automatic storage management and trash collection done on a per-process basis result in very responsive applications.
Joe Armstrong, Robert Viding, and Make William developed Erlang in 1986 as confidential software for Ericsson. It serves alternately with Erlang/OTP (Open Telecommunication Platform), a set of Erlang-based libraries, tools, and middleware. It is a core component of the Erlang free distribution.
Scala
Scala combines elements from static and dynamic languages and serves to create data pipelines and large data projects. Its static types, together with a vast library ecosystem, aid in the prevention of defects in complicated applications. It is extremely compatible with Java and the JVM, allowing for completely functional programming with functions categorized as first-class entities.
It is ideal for combining the best of static and dynamic languages. Scala may be more accessible for people who have already worked with Java. Scala mixes object-oriented and functional programming principles into a single, succinct high-level language. Scala’s static types aid in the prevention of problems in complicated applications, and therefore JVM and JavaScript runtimes enable the development of high-performance systems with simple access to vast library ecosystems.
Scala is a bundled high-level language that blends object-oriented programming and functional programming. It supports the JVM and JavaScript execution times, which allow for stringent verification of the type of statically typed languages. This support will enable Scala to make use of the current library ecosystem.
Haskell
It is a sophisticated functional programming language with expressive syntax and static typing. This indicates it is a compile-time language that returns an error message for erroneous syntax. It is typically employed for high-performance applications because it excels at optimization. The sluggish assessment of arguments allows for a more thorough composition and greater authority over structures.
Haskell is known as the ‘mother’ among all functional programming languages. It is a universal, statistically written, purely functional programming language that supports type inference and lazy assessment. Moreover, it is older than Java and pioneered several complex functions in programming languages.
It is frequently utilized in educational, academic, and industrial settings. Haskell functions are free of side effects since it is a functional language. It supports lazy evaluation, lambda gestures, matching patterns, type classes, variation, and list comprehension.
Common Lisp
Common Lisp is an adaptation of the Lisp programming language. It is a general-purpose, changing, multi-paradigm language which enables procedural, working, and object-oriented programming techniques. Lisp is one of the initial programming languages, with several dialects developed throughout time. As one of the oldest programming languages, Lisp pioneered several concepts in software development. The most well-known universal Lisp dialects are Racket, Common Lisp, Scheme, and Clojure.
Python
Although Python is not mainly a functional language, several functions like LaMDA, map(), and filter() enable it to produce compact, high-degree, and parallelizable code. Because of its simple syntax, it is often used by machine learning and data science teams for data pipelines and machine learning tasks.
Python is best suitable for teams with many data science or ML projects that require speedy onboarding.
Also Read: Computer Programming Jobs: Common Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
It is an all-purpose programming language that allows you to create things rapidly. Python’s syntax is simple to read and comprehend, making it the preferred language for practically all data processing and machine learning projects.
F#
It is one of the free and open-source functional programming languages mostly used for producing strong programs. It is the functional counterpart of the C# language, with straightforward syntax. Its varied data types enable pattern matching and asynchronous programming. It follows an information-oriented functional programming paradigm, which allows it to manipulate data via functions.
F# is a general-purpose, function-first, highly typed, multi-paradigm programming language that includes functional, essential, and object-oriented functions. It is frequently a multi-platform (Common Language Infrastructure) CLI language like .NET. It is akin to OCaml, with a few changes.
Additionally, it is part of the ML family of languages and can produce JavaScript or GPU code. It has reasonable tooling assistance, an open-source community, and a robust ecosystem supported by Microsoft and The F# Development Foundation. Moreover, It is utilized in various applications, including online APIs, data processing, machine learning, data science, and interactive software apps.
PHP
It is ideally suitable for rapid prototyping and website development with minimum code, as well as the creation of Web-based Content Management Systems or CMS platforms.
PHP is famous for its rapid prototyping and web development capabilities, and it even requires minimum coding to create internet-based content management systems. It is used to build some of the most well-known platforms, such as Facebook and WordPress. It is a basic and easy-to-understand language that may integrate with HTML, JavaScript, or XML. Though primarily functional programming languages, later versions also enable object-oriented programming.
PHP refers to Hypertext Processor. It’s a scripting language with broad applications that primarily finds applications in web development. It supports some of the most popular website platforms, like WordPress and Facebook.
Clojure
An all-purpose programming language that is compatible with the JVM and avoids duplicate calls to Java. It is quite friendly and engaging for a multithreaded programming technique. Despite being an executable language, it provides runtime support for certain features. Its macros are infamous for their nasty syntax, although the main body does not require a lot of syntactic baggage. Clojure is a prominent dynamic and functional Lisp dialect for the Java platform. It has immutable and durable data structures and lets developers directly control identities and states, giving them a huge advantage when developing concurrent and fast systems.
Also Read: Programming vs Coding: Unveiling The Key Differences
Elm
Elm is most suitable for developing web and HTML applications, and refactoring is quite simple because of its sophisticated compiler. The apps render quickly since they are built on a well-architected foundation. The programming language is highly interoperable with JavaScript, easy to know, and can be functional in a variety of applications without having to recapitulate the code’s previous pattern.
Elm is a domain-dependent programming language designed specifically for creating online browser-based GUIs. It is a fully functional language that provides usability, straightforwardness, performance, and reliability. Elm translates to JavaScript. This language’s distinguishing characteristics include no runtime exceptions, simple refactoring, pleasant error messages, outstanding performance, a module structure, static typing, and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript compatibility.
Advantages Of Functional Programming Languages
There are several advantages to programming using these languages, including:
- Limits mistakes: Because functional programming languages do not allow state changes, coding errors caused by state changes may be avoided. Limiting mistakes can assist enhance productivity by generating useable code.
- Increases programming in parallel capabilities: In addition to allowing several calculations to occur at the same time, these programming languages allow a single function to be used for various purposes. These enhanced features improve the functioning of the languages while encouraging reuse.
- Supports nested functions: One of the many applications of functions in these languages involves nested functions, which are specified functions within another function. This capacity improves the ability to send and receive data with low computing effort.
- Provides for lazy evaluation: Lazy functional structures, such as lazy lists and lazy maps, improve efficiency by creating a reference for every program’s evaluations. When an evaluation occurs in the program, it first tests to see if it already exists, minimizing the number of replications.
Conclusion
Functional programming languages have existed for a long time and are becoming increasingly popular. It is mainly used to create applications that must manage high levels of concurrent web traffic while remaining extremely performant and with extremely low latency.
The code produced in Functional Programming is typically concise, yet it might be challenging to grasp what it accomplishes. Scala, Common Lisp, Elixir, Haskell, and Erlang are among the most popular programming languages.
Moreover, Functional programming languages constantly evolve, providing developers with new tools and techniques for creating dependable, scalable, and sustainable software. The ten languages described here constitute various possibilities, each with unique strengths and application cases.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Is Python Is A Functional Language?
No, it is an imperative language, although it does include specific capabilities that allow you to write in a functional approach to a limited extent: map, reduce, filter, understandings, and the world’s shittiest lambdas.
What Is The Best Language For Functional Programming?
According to the rankings, consider Swift or Rust if you come from the C/C++ community and wish to study functional programming. Moreover, if you’re a member of the Java community and want to study functional programming, consider Scala or Kotlin.
What Are The Four Types Of Programming Languages?
The four types of programming languages are classified as:
- Procedural Programming Language
- Functional Programming Language
- Scripting Programming Language
- Logical Programming Language