Functions

Functions Lambda functions Returning multiple values from a function

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Functions in Python

Programming

Python

Functions

Mar 10, 2022

Last updated

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Default arguments

We can write our own functions in Python to perform things not supported by built-in functions alone.

The below piece of code represents the basic structure of a function:


        
        
            
                
                
                    def greeting(name, time_of_day):   # header
    """Return a greeting to someone based on the time of day.
    
    >>> greeting('Bob', 'evening')
    "Good evening Bob"
"""
    
    return ("Good " + time_of_day + " " + name)

#Call the function
greeting("Sara", 'morning')
                
            
            'Good morning Sara'

The docstring in triple quotes directly after the header provides a description of what the function does. This is displayed when we call help(~) on the function.

Default arguments

We can provide default values for arguments when defining a function:


        
        
            
                
                
                    def greeting(name="Tony", time_of_day="day"):   # header
    """Return a greeting to someone based on the time of day.
    
    >>> greeting('Bob', 'evening')
    "Good evening Bob"
"""
    
    return ("Good " + time_of_day + " " + name)

#Call the function
greeting()
                
            
            'Good day Tony'

Now we can call greeting() without passing any arguments and the default values will be used.

Published by Arthur Yanagisawa

Edited by 0 others

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