What does the lodash flow function do?

Question

I am reading some code that uses _.flow() from lodash and the explanation in the docs just isn\'t making sense to me.

The doc says

Creates a

Answer 1

Here is the relevant part of the source code for this function:

return function(...args) {
    let index = 0
    let result = length ? funcs[index].apply(this, args) : args[0]
    while (++index < length) {
        result = funcs[index].call(this, result)
    }
    return result
}

So it first applies the first function to the input arguments; then calls the rest of the functions with each taking up the result of the previous stage.

I can see the following benefits from doing it this way: - All the applied functions will use the this argument of the caller in case that is desired. - On definition, it just returns a function. This allows for lazy evaluation. The flow function can be passed around. The actual calculation will take place only when it is applied to the arguments.