chas explained it very well already, I'd just like to add that this is called a "lambda function" (or lambda expression) or an anonymous function, just in case

chas explained it very well already, I'd just like to add that this is called a "lambda function" (or lambda expression) or an anonymous function, just in case you want to look it up. There's more on it here: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Anonymous_function http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Anonymous_function