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TITLEChurch integer
SUBJECTmsc:03B40, msc:68N18
SUBJECTmathematics
DESCRIPTIONA ... Church integer is a representation of integers as functions, invented by Alonzo Church. An integer <i>N</i> is represented as a higher-order function, which applies a given function to a given expression <i>N</i> times. For example, in the programming language Haskell, a function that returns a particular Church integer might be ... The transformation from a Church integer to an integer might be ... unchurch n = n (+1) 0 ... Thus we can generate the integers--the ... function would be applied to an initial value of <i>0</i> <i>n</i> times, yielding the ordinary integer <i>n</i>.
PUBLISHERPlanetMath
DATE2004-09-18
TYPEtext
FORMATtext/html
IDENTIFIERplanetmath:183
SOURCEhttp://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/ChurchInteger.html
LANGUAGEen-us