How deeply does Elixir in Action, Third Edition cover pure functional data structure?

Explains benefits and process integration, but defers the underlying TodoList implementation details.

Pure functional data structure

As explained in Elixir in Action, Third Edition

A pure functional data structure is an immutable data structure whose operations produce new values without modifying existing values.

A pure functional data structure models data with immutable values: operations return transformed values instead of modifying existing state. This preserves integrity, atomicity, reusability, and testability. section 5.3.4

Keep the data structure separate from the stateful process that owns it. The process stores the current value, applies requests sequentially, and replaces its state with each returned value. This avoids using processes merely to simulate mutable data while preserving serialized access to shared state. section 5.3.4

Todo list state

Build a TodoList by chaining add_entry calls, then query entries for a date. A TodoServer can keep that value alive, delegate operations to TodoList, and continue its loop with the returned list. section 5.3.4

How Elixir in Action, Third Edition covers it

Cover of Elixir in Action, Third Edition

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Also explained in

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Functional Programming in Scala, Second EditionA purely functional data structure is an immutable data structure whose operations produce new values without mutating existing ones.

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Related concepts

pure functionuses · A pure function is a function whose output is determined solely by its explicit inputs and whose evaluation has no externally observable side effects.
persistent data structurekind of · A persistent data structure preserves access to previous versions because updates create new versions without modifying existing ones.
linked listincludes · An ordered sequence of elements stored in separate nodes connected by links or references rather than in one contiguous storage region.
data structurekind of · A data structure is an organized representation of data and its relationships that supports defined operations for storing, accessing, or modifying it.
persistent vectorincludes · A persistent vector is an immutable indexed sequence whose updates preserve earlier versions, typically through structural sharing.
server processused by · A server process is a concurrent process that encapsulates private state and communicates with other processes through messages.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Elixir in Action, Third Edition. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.