title: What is a lambda and what is an example implementation?
body: <p>I am fairly new to programming and while doing a lot of reading this concept of a lambda keeps coming up but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on what it actually is and how implementing it will make my programming life so much better.  So first, what is a lambda and second how might it be implemented?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks to all who posted.  As has been mentioned in the comments, this is a duplicate, but there are so many great answers here I want to preserve them for the community so I'm turning it into a community post.  Here is the link to the other question:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16501/what-is-a-lambda-function">What is a lambda (function)?</a></p>