Dramatic, I know. This is praise to those that allowed let to exist.
Since I know Python better, I still favor it but the small things like let in Clojure are turning me around.
In case you don’t know what let is in Clojure it is a temporary binding.It allows you to introduce temporary variables that are only valid within the body of let. This allows you to manage values or computation without affecting the surrounding code
For example:
Here we say let x equal to 1, then we call x and out comes 1. If we were to call x outside of the let body, it would not work correctly.
Why do I enjoy this so much?
Because it is another useful tool for our projects. More tools allow the flexibility to get the job done well.
Here is an example I did today. It took me longer than I would like to admit to find this missing key to solve my problem. I wanted to find the sum of some numbers, and square them after I found the sum, here is my answer:
(defn sum-to-square [n]
(let [sum (apply + (range (inc n)))]
(square sum)))
As you can see sum was the addition of all of the numbers including n. Then we just squared it to find the solution we needed. I tried other ways to organize the operations, eventually this turned out to be the best.
Not identical but similar in having temporary bindings that exist in its body are loops. I won’t go into the weeds for loops just yet. However, having the ability to loop using temporary bindings is incredible.
I have used loops or lets for every Euler Project problem I have done. Both excellent tools that I am happy I learned how to use.
Best,
Merl