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You're reading from  Scientific Computing with Python - Second Edition

Product typeBook
Published inJul 2021
Reading LevelIntermediate
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781838822323
Edition2nd Edition
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Authors (3):
Claus Führer
Claus Führer
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Claus Führer

Claus Führer is a professor of scientific computations at Lund University, Sweden. He has an extensive teaching record that includes intensive programming courses in numerical analysis and engineering mathematics across various levels in many different countries and teaching environments. Claus also develops numerical software in research collaboration with industry and received Lund University's Faculty of Engineering Best Teacher Award in 2016.
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7.7 Anonymous functions the keyword lambda

The keyword lambda is used in Python to define anonymous functions, that is, functions without a name and described by a single expression. You might just want to perform an operation on a function that can be expressed by a simple expression without naming this function and without defining this function by a lengthy def block.

The name lambda originates from a special branch of calculus and mathematical logic, the -calculus.

We demonstrate the use of lambda-functions by numerically evaluating the following integral:

We use SciPy’s function quad, which requires as its first argument the function to be integrated and the integration bounds as the next two arguments. Here, the function to be integrated is just a simple one-liner and we use the keyword lambda to define it:

import scipy.integrate as si
si.quad(lambda x: x ** 2 + 5, 0, 1)

The syntax is as follows:

lambda parameter_list: expression

The definition of the function lambda...

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Scientific Computing with Python - Second Edition
Published in: Jul 2021Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781838822323

Authors (3)

author image
Claus Führer

Claus Führer is a professor of scientific computations at Lund University, Sweden. He has an extensive teaching record that includes intensive programming courses in numerical analysis and engineering mathematics across various levels in many different countries and teaching environments. Claus also develops numerical software in research collaboration with industry and received Lund University's Faculty of Engineering Best Teacher Award in 2016.
Read more about Claus Führer