Pass arbitrary number of lambdas (or procs) in Ruby - ruby

Question

I am getting my head around the functional model in Ruby and ran into a problem. I am able to successfully pass any given number of arguments to an arbitrary function as follows:
add = ->(x, y) { return x + y }
mul = ->(x, y) { return x * y }
def call_binop(a, b, &func)
return func.call(a, b)
end
res = call_binop(2, 3, &add)
print("#{res}\n") #5
res = call_binop(3, 4, &mul)
print("#{res}\n") #12
However, I am not able to pass an arbitrary number of functions:
dbl = ->(x) { return 2 * x }
sqr = ->(x) { return x * x }
def call_funccomp(a, &func1, &func2)
return func2.call(func1.call(a))
end
res = call_funccomp(3, &dbl, &sqr)
print("#{res}\n") #Expect 36 but compiler error
The compiler error is syntax error, unexpected ',', expecting ')'
I have already added both lambdas and procs to an array and then executed elements of the array, so I know I can get around this by passing such an array as an argument, but for simple cases this seems to be a contortion for something (I hope) is legal in the language. Does Ruby actually limit the number or lambdas one can pass in the argument list? It seems to have a reasonably modern, flexible functional model (the notation is a little weird) where things can just execute via a call method.

Answer 1

Does Ruby actually limit the number or lambdas one can pass in the argument list?
No, you can pass as many procs / lambdas as you like. You just cannot pass them as block arguments.
Prepending the proc with & triggers Ruby's proc to block conversion, i.e. your proc becomes a block argument. And Ruby only allows at most one block argument.
Attempting to call call_funccomp(3, &dbl, &sqr) is equivalent to passing two blocks:
call_funccomp(3) { 2 * x } { x * x }
something that Ruby doesn't allow.
The fix is to omit &, i.e. to pass the procs / lambdas as positional arguments:
dbl = ->(x) { 2 * x }
sqr = ->(x) { x * x }
def call_funccomp(a, func1, func2)
func2.call(func1.call(a))
end
res = call_funccomp(3, dbl, sqr)
print("#{res}\n")
There's also Proc#>> which combines two procs:
def call_funccomp(a, func1, func2)
(func1 >> func2).call(a)
end