Learning F# Functional Data Structures and Algorithms

Syntactical similarities and differences

Let's expand upon the preceding example and compare the syntactical differences between F# and C# through another simple example, the sum of a square method. A shorter and elegant looking functional syntax follows:

let square x = x * x
let sumOfSquares n = [1..n] |> List.map square |> List.sum 

Here you see the use of one of F#'s celebrated operators, that is, the |> pipe forward operator. It essentially performs piping operations by passing the results from left the side of the function to the right side, and can be concatenated.

Running this program in F# the interactive console yields the following results for

sumOfSquares 2 

and

sumOfSquares 3 

respectively:

The sum of the squares method in C# looks something ...