CppCon 2020

Lambdas were first introduced into C++ with the release of the groundbreaking C++11 standard. New capabilities like generic lambda expressions and generalized captures were added in C++14. A few years ago, with the release of C++17, additional new features like constexpr lambda expressions were added. With the new release of C++20 even more features will added, some of which may change the way lambda expressions are used.

There are several parts to a lambda expression and in order to use them efficiently and effectively, you really need to master all the pieces. Do you know when to capture by value or capture by reference? Can the lifetime of variables be altered by a lambda expression? What are the ways to pass a lambda expression and is this a good idea? Our goal is to answer these questions and talk about the constraints lifted with each new version of C++. Multiple examples will be shown to illustrate what can be done with lambda expressions.

During this presentation developers will have the opportunity to learn or review the fundamentals about lambda expressions by studying the terminology. Once someone clearly understands the difference between a function object, function pointer, functor, and anonymous function, we have a great foundation for lambda expressions. We will be able to use our knowledge to reason about generalized captures and what it really means to capture "this".