What is a lambda (function)?

Question

For a person without a comp-sci background, what is a lambda in the world of Computer Science?

Answer 1

Just because I cant see a C++11 example here, I'll go ahead and post this nice example from here. After searching, it is the clearest language specific example that I could find.

Hello, Lambdas, version 1

template

void Eval( const F& f ) {
        f();
}
void foo() {
        Eval( []{ printf("Hello, Lambdas\n"); } );
}

Hello, Lambdas, version 2:

void bar() {
    auto f = []{ printf("Hello, Lambdas\n"); };
    f();
}