Chaining a number of callables into a single function

Question

How would you name this function (I gave in a name pipe in the example) which constructs combines a chain of functions with a single attribute into a single callable:

# Python
def pipe(*functions):
 """
 pipe(c, b, a)(value) == a(b(c(value)))
 """
 if len (functions) == 1:
 return functions[0]
 def chain(val):
 for func in functions:
 val = func(val)
 return val
 chain.func_name = '__'.join(repr(f) for f in functions)
 return chain

Answer 1

The function performs composition, so the name should be compose. Or rather reverse_compose, because it applies functions in the order reversed from natural composition.

• wchargin: Do you think it would be include to include something like nary_compose or multi_compose, or is compose alone sufficient?
• vnp: Unless you plan to add other compositors, I'd stick with plain compose. Otherwise, a distinctive prefix may be necessary.