How to translate a lambda expression into English? [closed]

Question

I'm a VB.NET programmer who also knows some C#. I've recently come across lambda expressions which in VB can look like this:

a = Function() b + c

However in C# they look like this:

a => b + c;

(Which, to me, looks a lot like a bizarre pointer expression from C)

The problem is that when reading C# code I mentally parse the operators into english words. So a = b + c; becomes "add b and c and assign to a". However I have no mental translation in my built in parser for the for the => operator yet so a => b + c; becomes either "a equals pointer to b and c" which makes no sense or "a is a lambda of b and c" which is dreadful.

I'm sure that the language creators meant for that operator to stand for a concept and that concept should be able to be reduced to a single word or very short phrase.

So what is the intended English translation for the => operator?

p.s. Note that I've tried to make the examples to be as simple as possible so as not to get bogged down in the specifics.

Answer 1

You have your example slightly wrong.

This VB code

a = Function()
  Return b + c
End Function

looks like this in C#:

Func<int> a = () => b + c;

The problem with the suggestion of calling => "returns" is that this doesn't work with lambdas that don't return anything:

For example:

Action a = () => Console.WriteLine("Test");

If you call => "returns" in that scenario, it would be a bit confusing, I think.

Generally, the term used for => is "goes to" but some people say "maps to" or (in the case of lambdas that are used as predicates) "such that".

My personal preference is "maps to" (as suggested in the very first reply to the OP!).

Answer 2

How about 'a returns b plus c'?