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# Lambda Functions¶

Sometimes, we don’t want to use the normal way to define a function, especially if our function is just one line. In this case, we can use anonymous function in Python, which is a function that is defined without a name. This type of functions also called labmda function, since they are defined using the labmda keyword. A typical lambda function is defined:

lambda arguments: expression


It can have any number of arguments, but with only one expression.

TRY IT! Define a labmda function, which square the in put number. And call the function with input 2 and 5.

square = lambda x: x**2

print(square(2))
print(square(5))

4
25


In the above lambda function, x is the argument and x**2 is the expression that gets evaluated and returned. The function itself has no name, and it returns a function object (which we will talk more in later chapter) to square. After it is defined, we can call it as a normal function. The lambda function is equivalent to:

def square(x):
return x**2


TRY IT! Define a labmda function, which add x and y.

my_adder = lambda x, y: x + y


6


Lambda functions can be useful in my cases, we will see more usage in later chapters. Here we just show a common use case for lambda function.

EXAMPLE: Sort [(1, 2), (2, 0), (4, 1)] based on the 2nd item in the tuple.

sorted([(1, 2), (2, 0), (4, 1)], key=lambda x: x[1])

[(2, 0), (4, 1), (1, 2)]


What happens? The function sorted has an argument key, where a custom key function can be supplied to customize the sort order. We use the lambda function as a shortcut for this custom key function.