In FP functions shouldn't mutate data structures that were passed by reference on input, instead any input data should be copied before performing mutations on it to avoid changes to external state.

This is how e.g. Array.prototype.filter() works in JavaScript:

  var numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10];

  var evenNumbers = numbers.filter( function(number) {
    return number % 2 === 0;
  });

In f# for example you can write: let result = list1 |> List.filter (fun e -> ...) |> List.map (fun e -> ...) |> .... no mutation, but you are piping the intermediate result to the next operation. In c# you could achieve a similar result by using the dot operator instead of the backpiping |> one.