perl - Is "map" a loop?

Question

While answering this question, I came to realize that I was not sure whether Perl's map can be considered a loop or not?

On one hand, it quacks/walks like a loop (does O(n) work, can be easily re-written by an equivalent loop, and sort of fits the common definition = "a sequence of instructions that is continually repeated").

On the other hand, map is not usually listed among Perl's control structures, of which loops are a subset of. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_control_structures#Loops

So, what I'm looking for is a formal reason to be convinced of one side vs. the other. So far, the former (it is a loop) sounds a lot more convincing to me, but I'm bothered by the fact that I never saw "map" mentioned in a list of Perl loops.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3019925/is-map-a-loop

Answer 1

map is a higher level concept than loops, borrowed from functional programming. It doesn't say "call this function on each of these items, one by one, from beginning to end," it says "call this function on all of these items." It might be implemented as a loop, but that's not the point -- it also might be implemented asynchronously -- it would still be map.

Additionally, it's not really a control structure in itself -- what if every perl function that used a loop in its implementation were listed under "loops?" Just because something is implemented using a loop, doesn't mean it should be considered its own type of loop.