Python Functions

Functions are the most important aspect of an application. A function can be defined as the
organized block of reusable code, which can be called whenever required.

Python allows us to divide a large program into the basic building blocks known as a function.
The function contains the set of programming statements enclosed by {}. A function can be
called multiple times to provide reusability and modularity to the Python program.

The Function helps to programmer to break the program into the smaller part. It organizes the
code very effectively and avoids the repetition of the code. As the program grows, function
makes the program more organized.

Python provide us various inbuilt functions like range() or print(). Although, the user can create
its functions, which can be called user-defined functions.

There are mainly two types of functions.

 User-define functions - The user-defined functions are those define by the user to
perform the specific task.
 Built-in functions - The built-in functions are those functions that are pre-defined in
Python.

In this tutorial, we will discuss the user define functions.

Advantage of Functions in Python

There are the following advantages of Python functions.

 Using functions, we can avoid rewriting the same logic/code again and again in a
program.
 We can call Python functions multiple times in a program and anywhere in a program.
 We can track a large Python program easily when it is divided into multiple functions.
 Reusability is the main achievement of Python functions.
 However, Function calling is always overhead in a Python program.

Creating a Function

Python provides the def keyword to define the function. The syntax of the define function is
given below.

Syntax:

1. def my_function(parameters):  
 2.       function_block  
3. return expression  

Let's understand the syntax of functions definition.

 The def keyword, along with the function name is used to define the function.
 The identifier rule must follow the function name.
 A function accepts the parameter (argument), and they can be optional.
 The function block is started with the colon (:), and block statements must be at the same
indentation.
 The return statement is used to return the value. A function can have only one return

Function Calling

In Python, after the function is created, we can call it from another function. A function must be
defined before the function call; otherwise, the Python interpreter gives an error. To call the
function, use the function name followed by the parentheses.

Consider the following example of a simple example that prints the message "Hello World".

1. #function definition  
2. def hello_world():    
3.     print("hello world")    
4. # function calling  
5. hello_world()      

Output:

hello world

The return statement

The return statement is used at the end of the function and returns the result of the function. It
terminates the function execution and transfers the result where the function is called. The return
statement cannot be used outside of the function.

Syntax

1. return [expression_list]  

It can contain the expression which gets evaluated and value is returned to the caller function. If
the return statement has no expression or does not exist itself in the function then it returns the
None object.

Consider the following example:

Example 1

1. # Defining function  
2. def sum():  
3.     a = 10  
4.     b = 20  
5.     c = a+b  
6.     return c  
7. # calling sum() function in print statement  
8. print("The sum is:",sum())  

Output:

The sum is: 30

In the above code, we have defined the function named sum, and it has a statement c = a+b,
which computes the given values, and the result is returned by the return statement to the caller
function.

Example 2 Creating function without return statement

1. # Defining function  
2. def sum():  
3.     a = 10  
4.     b = 20  
5.     c = a+b  
6. # calling sum() function in print statement  
7. print(sum())  

Output:

None

In the above code, we have defined the same function without the return statement as we can see
that the sum() function returned the None object to the caller function.

Arguments in function
The arguments are types of information which can be passed into the function. The arguments
are specified in the parentheses. We can pass any number of arguments, but they must be
separate them with a comma.

Consider the following example, which contains a function that accepts a string as the argument.

Example 1
 1. #defining the function    
2. def func (name):    
3.     print("Hi ",name)   
4. #calling the function     
5. func("Devansh")     

Output:

Hi Devansh

Example 2

1. #Python function to calculate the sum of two variables     
2. #defining the function    
3. def sum (a,b):    
4.     return a+b    
5.     
6. #taking values from the user    
7. a = int(input("Enter a: "))    
8. b = int(input("Enter b: "))    
9.     
10. #printing the sum of a and b    
11. print("Sum = ",sum(a,b))    

Output:

Enter a: 10
Enter b: 20
Sum = 30

Call by reference in Python

In Python, call by reference means passing the actual value as an argument in the function. All
the functions are called by reference, i.e., all the changes made to the reference inside the
function revert back to the original value referred by the reference.

Example 1 Passing Immutable Object (List)

1. #defining the function    
2. def change_list(list1):    
3.     list1.append(20)   
4.     list1.append(30)    
5.     print("list inside function = ",list1)    
6.     
7. #defining the list    
8. list1 = [10,30,40,50]    
 9.     
10. #calling the function     
11. change_list(list1)  
12. print("list outside function = ",list1)  

Output:

list inside function = [10, 30, 40, 50, 20, 30]

list outside function = [10, 30, 40, 50, 20, 30]

Example 2 Passing Mutable Object (String)

1. #defining the function    
2. def change_string (str):    
3.     str = str + " Hows you "  
4.     print("printing the string inside function :",str)  
5.     
6. string1 = "Hi I am there"    
7.     
8. #calling the function    
9. change_string(string1)    
10.     
11. print("printing the string outside function :",string1)    

Output:

printing the string inside function : Hi I am there Hows you

printing the string outside function : Hi I am there

Types of arguments
There may be several types of arguments which can be passed at the time of function call.

1. Required arguments
2. Keyword arguments
3. Default arguments
4. Variable-length arguments

Required Arguments

Till now, we have learned about function calling in Python. However, we can provide the
arguments at the time of the function call. As far as the required arguments are concerned, these
are the arguments which are required to be passed at the time of function calling with the exact
match of their positions in the function call and function definition. If either of the arguments is
not provided in the function call, or the position of the arguments is changed, the Python
interpreter will show the error.
Consider the following example.

Example 1

1. def func(name):    
2.     message = "Hi "+name  
3.     return message  
4. name = input("Enter the name:")    
5. print(func(name))    

Output:

Enter the name: John

Hi John

Example 2

1. #the function simple_interest accepts three arguments and returns the simple interest acco
rdingly    
2. def simple_interest(p,t,r):    
3.     return (p*t*r)/100    
4. p = float(input("Enter the principle amount? "))    
5. r = float(input("Enter the rate of interest? "))    
6. t = float(input("Enter the time in years? "))    
7. print("Simple Interest: ",simple_interest(p,r,t))    

Output:

Enter the principle amount: 5000

Enter the rate of interest: 5
Enter the time in years: 3
Simple Interest: 750.0

Example 3

1. #the function calculate returns the sum of two arguments a and b    
2. def calculate(a,b):    
3.     return a+b    
4. calculate(10) # this causes an error as we are missing a required arguments b.    

Output:

TypeError: calculate() missing 1 required positional argument: 'b'

Default Arguments
Python allows us to initialize the arguments at the function definition. If the value of any of the
arguments is not provided at the time of function call, then that argument can be initialized with
the value given in the definition even if the argument is not specified at the function call.

Example 1

1. def printme(name,age=22):    
2.     print("My name is",name,"and age is",age)    
3. printme(name = "john")  

Output:

My name is John and age is 22

Example 2

1. def printme(name,age=22):    
2.     print("My name is",name,"and age is",age)    
3. printme(name = "john") #the variable age is not passed into the function however the def
ault value of age is considered in the function    
4. printme(age = 10,name="David") #the value of age is overwritten here, 10 will be printed 
as age   

Variable-length Arguments (*args)

In large projects, sometimes we may not know the number of arguments to be passed in advance.
In such cases, Python provides us the flexibility to offer the comma-separated values which are
internally treated as tuples at the function call. By using the variable-length arguments, we can
pass any number of arguments.

However, at the function definition, we define the variable-length argument using the *args
(star) as *<variable - name >.

Consider the following example.

Example

1. def printme(*names):    
2.     print("type of passed argument is ",type(names))    
3.     print("printing the passed arguments...")    
4.     for name in names:    
5.         print(name)    

In the above code, we passed *names as variable-length argument. We called the function and
passed values which are treated as tuple internally. The tuple is an iterable sequence the same as
the list. To print the given values, we iterated *arg names using for loop.
Keyword arguments(**kwargs)

Python allows us to call the function with the keyword arguments. This kind of function call will
enable us to pass the arguments in the random order.

The name of the arguments is treated as the keywords and matched in the function calling and
definition. If the same match is found, the values of the arguments are copied in the function
definition.

Consider the following example.

Example 1

1. #function func is called with the name and message as the keyword arguments    
2. def func(name,message):    
3.     print("printing the message with",name,"and ",message)    
4.       
5.     #name and message is copied with the values John and hello respectively    
6.     func(name = "John",message="hello")   

Output:

printing the message with John and hello

Example 2 providing the values in different order at the calling

1. #The function simple_interest(p, t, r) is called with the keyword arguments the order of ar
guments doesn't matter in this case    
2. def simple_interest(p,t,r):    
3.     return (p*t*r)/100    
4. print("Simple Interest: ",simple_interest(t=10,r=10,p=1900))     

If we provide the different name of arguments at the time of function call, an error will be
thrown.

Consider the following example.

Example 3

1. #The function simple_interest(p, t, r) is called with the keyword arguments.     
2. def simple_interest(p,t,r):    
3.     return (p*t*r)/100    
4.   
5. # doesn't find the exact match of the name of the arguments (keywords)      
6. print("Simple Interest: ",simple_interest(time=10,rate=10,principle=1900))   
Output:

TypeError: simple_interest() got an unexpected keyword argument 'time'

The Python allows us to provide the mix of the required arguments and keyword arguments at
the time of function call. However, the required argument must not be given after the keyword
argument, i.e., once the keyword argument is encountered in the function call, the following
arguments must also be the keyword arguments.

Consider the following example.

Example 4

1. def func(name1,message,name2):    
2.     print("printing the message with",name1,",",message,",and",name2)    
3. #the first argument is not the keyword argument    
4. func("John",message="hello",name2="David")   

Output:

printing the message with John , hello ,and David

The following example will cause an error due to an in-proper mix of keyword and required
arguments being passed in the function call.

Example 5

1. def func(name1,message,name2):   
2.     print("printing the message with",name1,",",message,",and",name2)    
3. func("John",message="hello","David")        

Python provides the facility to pass the multiple keyword arguments which can be represented as
**kwargs. It is similar as the *args but it stores the argument in the dictionary format.

This type of arguments is useful when we do not know the number of arguments in advance.

Consider the following example:

Example 6: Many arguments using Keyword argument

1. def food(**kwargs):  
2.     print(kwargs)  
3. food(a="Apple")  
4. food(fruits="Orange", Vagitables="Carrot")  

}
Scope of variables
The scopes of the variables depend upon the location where the variable is being declared. The
variable declared in one part of the program may not be accessible to the other parts.

In python, the variables are defined with the two types of scopes.

1. Global variables
2. Local variables

The variable defined outside any function is known to have a global scope, whereas the variable
defined inside a function is known to have a local scope.

Consider the following example.

Example 1 Local Variable

1. def print_message():    
2.     message = "hello !! I am going to print a message." # the variable message is local to t
he function itself    
3.     print(message)    
4. print_message()    
5. print(message) # this will cause an error since a local variable cannot be accessible here.   
   

Example 2 Global Variable

1. def calculate(*args):    
2.     sum=0    
3.     for arg in args:    
4.         sum = sum +arg    
5.     print("The sum is",sum)    
6. sum=0    
7. calculate(10,20,30) #60 will be printed as the sum    
8. print("Value of sum outside the function:",sum) # 0 will be printed  Output:  

Python Built-in Functions

The Python built-in functions are defined as the functions whose functionality is pre-defined in
Python. The python interpreter has several functions that are always present for use. These
functions are known as Built-in Functions. There are several built-in functions in Python which
are listed below:

Python abs() Function

The python abs() function is used to return the absolute value of a number. It takes only one
argument, a number whose absolute value is to be returned. The argument can be an integer and
floating-point number. If the argument is a complex number, then, abs() returns its magnitude.

Python abs() Function Example

1. #  integer number     
2. integer = -20  
3. print('Absolute value of -40 is:', abs(integer))  
4.   
5. #  floating number  
6. floating = -20.83  
7. print('Absolute value of -40.83 is:', abs(floating))  

Python all() Function

The python all() function accepts an iterable object (such as list, dictionary, etc.). It returns true
if all items in passed iterable are true. Otherwise, it returns False. If the iterable object is empty,
the all() function returns True.

Python all() Function Example

1. # all values true  
2. k = [1, 3, 4, 6]  
3. print(all(k))  
4.   
5. # all values false  
6. k = [0, False]  
7. print(all(k))  
8.   
9. # one false value  
10. k = [1, 3, 7, 0]  
11. print(all(k))  
12.   
13. # one true value  
14. k = [0, False, 5]  
15. print(all(k))  
16.   
17. # empty iterable  
18. k = []  
19. print(all(k))  

Python dict()
Python dict() function is a constructor which creates a dictionary. Python dictionary provides
three different constructors to create a dictionary:

 If no argument is passed, it creates an empty dictionary.

 If a positional argument is given, a dictionary is created with the same key-value pairs.
Otherwise, pass an iterable object.
 If keyword arguments are given, the keyword arguments and their values are added to the
dictionary created from the positional argument.

Python dict() Example

1. # Calling function  
2. result = dict() # returns an empty dictionary  
3. result2 = dict(a=1,b=2)  
4. # Displaying result  
5. print(result)  
6. print(result2)  

Output:

{}
{'a': 1, 'b': 2}

Python filter() Function

Python filter() function is used to get filtered elements. This function takes two arguments, first
is a function and the second is iterable. The filter function returns a sequence of those elements
of iterable object for which function returns true value.

The first argument can be none, if the function is not available and returns only elements that are
true.

Python filter() Function Example

1. # Python filter() function example  
2. def filterdata(x):  
3.     if x>5:  
4.         return x  
5. # Calling function  
6. result = filter(filterdata,(1,2,6))  
7. # Displaying result  
8. print(list(result))  
Python Lambda Functions
Python Lambda function is known as the anonymous function that is defined without a name.
Python allows us to not declare the function in the standard manner, i.e., by using the def
keyword. Rather, the anonymous functions are declared by using the lambda keyword.
However, Lambda functions can accept any number of arguments, but they can return only one
value in the form of expression.

The anonymous function contains a small piece of code. It simulates inline functions of C and
C++, but it is not exactly an inline function.

The syntax to define an anonymous function is given below.

Syntax

1. lambda arguments: expression       

It can accept any number of arguments and has only one expression. It is useful when the
function objects are required.

Consider the following example of the lambda function.

Example 1

1. # a is an argument and a+10 is an expression which got evaluated and returned.    
2. x = lambda a:a+10   
3. # Here we are printing the function object  
4. print(x)  
5. print("sum = ",x(20))  

Output:

<function <lambda> at 0x0000019E285D16A8>

sum = 30

In the above example, we have defined the lambda a: a+10 anonymous function where a is an
argument and a+10 is an expression. The given expression gets evaluated and returned the result.
The above lambda function is same as the normal function.

1. def x(a):  
2.     return a+10  
3. print(sum = x(10))  

Example 2
Multiple arguments to Lambda function

1. # a and b are the arguments and a*b is the expression which gets evaluated and returned.   
 
2. x = lambda a,b: a*b  
3. print("mul = ", x(20,10))  
4. <p><strong>Output:</strong></p>  
5. <div class="codeblock3"><pre>  
6. mul =  200  
7. </pre></div>  
8. <h2 class="h2">Why use lambda function?</h2>  
9. <p>The main role of the lambda function is better described in the scenarios when we use 
them anonymously inside another function. In Python, the lambda function can be used a
s an argument to the <strong>higher-order functions</strong> which accepts other functi
ons as arguments.</p>  
10. <p>Consider the following example:</p>  
11. <h3 class="h3">Example 1:</h3>  
12. <div class="codeblock"><textarea name="code" class="python">  
13. #the function table(n) prints the table of n    
14. def table(n):    
15.     return lambda a:a*n # a will contain the iteration variable i and a multiple of n is return
ed at each function call    
16. n = int(input("Enter the number:"))    
17. b = table(n) #the entered number is passed into the function table. b will contain a lambda 
function which is called again and again with the iteration variable i    
18. for i in range(1,11):    
19.     print(n,"X",i,"=",b(i)) #the lambda function b is called with the iteration variable i