What is the difference between functional and object-oriented programming?

Functional programming and object-oriented programming are two different paradigms used in software development.

Functional Programming:

In functional programming, the focus is on defining functions that operate on data. Functions in functional programming are considered first-class citizens, meaning they can be passed around as arguments to other functions, returned from other functions, and assigned to variables. Functional programming emphasizes immutability, meaning that once a variable is assigned a value, it cannot be changed. Recursion is commonly used in functional programming to solve problems.

Object-Oriented Programming:

Object-oriented programming, on the other hand, is centered around objects. An object is a self-contained entity that contains both data and methods to operate on that data. Objects can interact with each other through methods. Object-oriented programming emphasizes concepts such as encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. Encapsulation refers to the bundling of data and methods within an object, inheritance allows objects to inherit properties and methods from parent objects, and polymorphism allows objects of different classes to be treated as objects of a common superclass.

In summary, the main difference between functional and object-oriented programming lies in their approach to organizing code and data. Functional programming focuses on functions and immutability, while object-oriented programming revolves around objects and concepts like encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.