What is the Purpose of Closures?

I really don't understand what the purpose of closures is. It seems to me that everything that can be written using closures, is just as easily written without. For example:


void main()
{
    int[] haystack = [345,15,457,9,56,123,456];
    int   needle = 123;
    bool needleTest(int n)
    {
        return n == needle;
    }
    printf(find(haystack, &needleTest));
}

Wouldn't this be better written as:


void main()
{
    int[] haystack = [345,15,457,9,56,123,456];
    int   needle = 123;
    foreach(int i : haystack)
    {
        if (i == needle)
        {
            printf(i);
        }
    }
}

Or at least defining the function outside of main() and referencing it inside? I just don't understand the benefit of closures.

>>6
not a lisp user but how would you go about finding joe or jane then seeing as boy and girl are not lists or arrays?

>>6
Listen to >>7. This is what's wrong with LISP.