Inline Methods
In addition to defining methods as members of a class, you may use inline methods in expressions:
table.setFormatter(function(node:Node):String {
return "\{node.id} (\{node.children.length})"
})
Inline methods are defined very similarly to normal class member functions. They may be either methods or functions, but they do not have names or annotations. Methods are a first-class type in Frost, meaning that you may store methods in variables, return them from methods, create arrays of methods, and otherwise treat them as you would any other Frost value.
Methods defined inside of another method may access any visible defines, constants, non-variable method parameters, or fields of the enclosing class.
See method types for how to describe the type of a method.
Lambdas
In addition to the full form shown above, a shorthand syntax exists to create functions which simply return an expression:
def f := x:Real => x * x
This is equivalent to the inline function:
def f := function(x:Real):Real {
return x * x
}
This form of expression is known as a lambda. If a lambda expression has more than one parameter, the parameters must be surrounded by parentheses:
def f := (x:Real, y:Real) => (x * x + y * y).sqrt()
If the lambda is being used in a context where its type can be inferred (such as a call to a method which expects a particular type of method or an assignment to a variable or field with a method type), you may omit the parameter types:
Int[1 ... 10].fold((x, y) => x + y)
Lambdas are always functions; they may not have side effects and there is no equivalent "method form" of a lambda. If you must define an inline method, use the full syntax described above.