Editing Nested function (section)

== Uses ==

=== Helper ===

A nested function typically acts as a [[wrapper function|helper function]] or a [[recursion (computer science)|recursive function]].

=== Control flow ===

Nested functions can be used for unstructured [[control flow]], by using the return statement for general unstructured control flow. This can be used for finer-grained control than is possible with other built-in features of the language – for example, it can allow early termination of a for loop if <code>break</code> is not available, or early termination of a nested [[for loop]] if a multi-level <code>break</code> or exceptions are not available.

=== Higher-order functions ===

{{Main|Higher-order function}}

In some languages, it is possible to create a nested function that accesses a set of parameters from the outer function, that is a [[Closure (computer programming)|closure]], and have that function be the outer function's return value. Thus it is possible to return a function that is set to fulfill a certain task with little or no further parameters given to it, which can increase performance quite significantly.<ref name="Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas – Kotlin Programming Language">[http://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/inline-functions.html Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas - Kotlin Programming Language]</ref>