# Closures

Closures in Rust, also called lambda expressions or lambdas, are functions that can capture the enclosing environment. For example, a closure that captures the x variable:

    |val| val + x

The syntax and capabilities of closures make them very convenient for on the fly usage. Calling a closure is exactly like calling a function. However, both input and return types can be inferred and input variable names must be specified.

Other characteristics of closures include:

- using `||` instead of `()` around input variables.
- optional body delimination (`{}`) for a single expression (mandatory otherwise).
- the ability to capture the outer environment variables.

    fn main() {
        // Increment via closures and functions.
        fn  function            (i: i32) -> i32 { i + 1 }

        // Closures are anonymous, here we are binding them to references
        // Annotation is identical to function annotation but is optional
        // as are the `{}` wrapping the body. These nameless functions
        // are assigned to appropriately named variables.
        let closure_annotated = |i: i32| -> i32 { i + 1 };
        let closure_inferred  = |i     |          i + 1  ;

        let i = 1;
        // Call the function and closures.
        println!("function: {}", function(i));
        println!("closure_annotated: {}", closure_annotated(i));
        println!("closure_inferred: {}", closure_inferred(i));

        // A closure taking no arguments which returns an `i32`.
        // The return type is inferred.
        let one = || 1;
        println!("closure returning one: {}", one());

    }