Why are Python lambdas useful? [closed]

Answer 1

I'm a python beginner, so to getter a clear idea of lambda I compared it with a 'for' loop; in terms of efficiency. Here's the code (python 2.7) -

import time
start = time.time() # Measure the time taken for execution

def first():
    squares = map(lambda x: x**2, range(10))
    # ^ Lambda
    end = time.time()
    elapsed = end - start
    print elapsed + ' seconds'
    return elapsed # gives 0.0 seconds

def second():
    lst = []
    for i in range(10):
        lst.append(i**2)
    # ^ a 'for' loop
    end = time.time()
    elapsed = end - start
    print elapsed + ' seconds'
    return elapsed # gives 0.0019998550415 seconds.

print abs(second() - first()) # Gives 0.0019998550415 seconds!(duh)