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enosemi
enosemi

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Easy understanding of functions in python

We should all understand a function is a block of organized reusable code for performing single or related action. Python has many built-in functions that we have probably used e.g print(),input(), etc. But there are also user-defined functions which allows you to create a block of code to perform your bidding at any time it is called.

Now let's look at the python function syntax:


def functionname(parameters):
   '''block of code'''
   pass

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It is as simple as that, next is explaining the use of each keywords in the syntax.

  1. The def keyword is also know as define is the first keyword that a function should begin with.

  2. Parameters or arguments are placed within the parentheses and we use them inside our function body

  3. The code block begins after a colon and is usually indented

Let's put this into practice and write a function that takes the sum of two numbers.

def sum(num1, num2):
      '''this function adds two numbers'''
      Return num1 + num2

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The above code shows the function name sum that has two parameters for calculating the sum of two numbers

How to call a function

In the previous code we wrote our function wasn't called so if we execute the command it will return nothing. To call a function we just type the function name and the desired parameters.
Let's try another example.

Def sum(a , b):
    #this function add two numbers
    Return num1 + num2
#now call the function
sum(2,5)

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How To Define A Function(User-Defined Functions).

The four steps to defining a function in Python are the following:

  1. Use the keyword def to declare the function and follow this up with the function name.
  2. Add parameters to the function: they should be within the parentheses of the function. End your line with a colon.
  3. Add statements that the functions should execute.
  4. End your function with a return statement if the function should output something. Without the return statement, your function will return an object None.

Finally I want us to know we have two types of functions in python which are:

  1. Built-in functions that were developed with the language e.g min()

  2. user-defined functions that are created by the users to solve their problem.

Oldest comments (1)

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henryagu profile image
HenryAgu

Nice one.