I think I'd gotten stuck in the mindset that functional programming requires streams, but there's no reason you couldn't use slices. Variables are not strictly functional, per se, but it's trivial to have an auxiliary function that does the same thing, so I don't object to them.

I see there's some confusion about what qualifies as functional. That's probably my fault for not specifying. I punted, because I don't think I had it well-defined in my own mind. But I think I have a better idea now:

In the purest sense, a functional program is one in which nothing is modified — all new values are modified copies of something else. In keeping with that, the only variables are parameters to the functions.

Most functional languages allow for some practical exceptions to avoid cumbersome jumping through hoops, as in the case of your temp variable. I like your solution a lot.

Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.

In reply to Re^4: Functional shuffle by Roy Johnson
in thread Functional shuffle by Roy Johnson

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.