Currying is a process in functional programming in which we can transform a function with multiple arguments into a sequence of nesting functions. It returns a new function that expects the next argument inline.

In other words, when a function, instead of taking all arguments at one time, takes the first one and return a new function that takes the second one and returns a new function which takes the third one, and so forth, until all arguments have been fulfilled.

That is, when we turn a function call sum(1,2,3) into sum(1)(2)(3)

The number of arguments a function takes is also called arity.

function sum(a, b) {
    // do something
}
function _sum(a, b, c) {
    // do something
}

function sum takes two arguments (2-arity function) and _sum takes three arguments (3-arity function).

Curried functions are constructed by chaining closures by defining and immediately returning their inner functions simultaneously.

Why it’s useful ?

1. Currying helps we avoid passing the same variable again and again.
2. It helps to create a higher order function

Currying transforms a function with multiple arguments into a sequence/series of functions each taking a single argument.

Example:

function sum(a, b, c) {
    return a + b + c;
}

sum(1,2,3); // 6

As we see, function with the full arguments. Let’s create a curried version of the function and see how we would call the same function (and get the same result) in a series of calls:

function sum(a) {
    return (b) => {
        return (c) => {
            return a + b + c
        }
    }
}
console.log(sum(1)(2)(3)) // 6

We could separate this sum(1)(2)(3) to understand it better:

const sum1 = sum(1);
const sum2 = sum1(2);
const result = sum2(3);
console.log(result); // 6

Let’s get to know how it works:

We passed 1 to the sum function:

let sum1 = sum(1);

It returns the function:

return (b) => {
        return (c) => {
            return a + b + c
        }
}

#functional-programming #web-development #javascript #currying #front-end-development