Grokking Functional Programming - by Michal Plachta (Paperback)

About the Book

Grokking Functional Programming is a practical book written especially for object-oriented programmers. It will help you map familiar ideas like objects and composition to FP concepts such as programming with immutable data and higher-order functions. You will learn how to write concurrent programs, how to handle errors and how to design your solutions with modularity and readability in mind. And you'll be pleased to know that we skip the academic baggage of lambda calculus, category theory, and the mathematical foundations of FP in favour of applying functional programming to everyday programming tasks. At the end of the book, you'll be ready to pick a functional language and start writing useful and maintainable software.

Book Synopsis

There's no need to fear going functional! This friendly, lively, and engaging guide is perfect for any perplexed programmer. It lays out the principles of functional programming in a simple and concise way that will help you grok what FP is really all about.

In Grokking Functional Programming you will learn:

Designing with functions and types instead of objects
Programming with pure functions and immutable values
Writing concurrent programs using the functional style
Testing functional programs
Multiple learning approaches to help you grok each new concept

If you've ever found yourself rolling your eyes at functional programming, this is the book for you. Open up Grokking Functional Programming and you'll find functional ideas mapped onto what you already know as an object-oriented programmer. The book focuses on practical aspects from page one. Hands-on examples apply functional principles to everyday programming tasks like concurrency, error handling, and improving readability. Plus, puzzles and exercises let you think and practice what you're learning. You'll soon reach an amazing "aha" moment and start seeing code in a completely new way.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the technology
Finally, there's an easy way to learn functional programming! This unique book starts with the familiar ideas of OOP and introduces FP step-by-step using relevant examples, engaging exercises, and lots of illustrations. You'll be amazed at how quickly you'll start seeing software tasks from this valuable new perspective.

About the book
Grokking Functional Programming introduces functional programming to imperative developers. You'll start with small, comfortable coding tasks that expose basic concepts like writing pure functions and working with immutable data. Along the way, you'll learn how to write code that eliminates common bugs caused by complex distributed state. You'll also explore the FP approach to IO, concurrency, and data streaming. By the time you finish, you'll be writing clean functional code that's easy to understand, test, and maintain.

What's inside

Designing with functions and types instead of objects
Programming with pure functions and immutable values
Writing concurrent programs using the functional style
Testing functional programs

About the reader
For developers who know an object-oriented language. Examples in Java and Scala.

About the author
Michal Plachta is an experienced software developer who regularly speaks and writes about creating maintainable applications.

Table of Contents
Part 1 The functional toolkit
1 Learning functional programming
2 Pure functions
3 Immutable values
4 Functions as values
Part 2 Functional programs
5 Sequential programs
6 Error handling
7 Requirements as types
8 IO as values
9 Streams as values
10 Concurrent programs
Part 3 Applied functional programming
11 Designing functional programs
12 Testing functional programs

Review Quotes

"An absolutely wonderful book for someone that has tried and failed to understand functional programming." William E. Wheeler "A very practical manuscript." Ubaldo Pescatore "Nice introduction to functional programming. Sure to get Java, Javascript, and C# developers into functional programming." Anjan Bacchu

About the Author

Michal Plachta started using Scala commercially in 2014 and has been an active contributor to the Scala and JVM communities since. He regularly speaks at conferences, runs workshops, and organizes meetups to help others become better at functional programming. You can find his blog at michalplachta.com.