Lambda Functions in Python
What are Lambda Functions?
In Python, we use the lambda keyword to declare an anonymous function, which is why we refer to them as “lambda functions”. An anonymous function refers to a function declared with no name. Although syntactically they look different, lambda functions behave in the same way as regular functions that are declared using the def keyword. The following are the characteristics of Python lambda functions:
- A lambda function can take any number of arguments, but they contain only a single expression. An expression is a piece of code executed by the lambda function, which may or may not return any value.
- Lambda functions can be used to return function objects.
- Syntactically, lambda functions are restricted to only a single expression.
In this article, we will discuss Python’s lambda functions in detail, as well as show examples of how to use them.
Creating a Lambda Function
We use the following syntax to declare a lambda function:
lambda argument(s): expression
As stated above, we can have any number of arguments but only a single expression. The lambda operator cannot have any statements and it returns a function object that we can assign to any variable.