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Functions in Python: Output

Functions in Python allow grouping common or repeated code together under a name so it can be easily called. There are built-in functions like print() as well as user-defined functions. A simple example function checks if a number is even or odd. When a function is called, the arguments are passed by reference, so changes made to parameters inside the function also affect the original arguments. Functions can have default values for arguments if they are not passed in a call. Keyword arguments allow specifying argument names instead of just position. Variable argument lists (*args and **kwargs) allow functions to accept flexible numbers of positional and keyword arguments. Anonymous functions, defined with lambda, provide short, inline functions without a name.

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122 views4 pages

Functions in Python: Output

Functions in Python allow grouping common or repeated code together under a name so it can be easily called. There are built-in functions like print() as well as user-defined functions. A simple example function checks if a number is even or odd. When a function is called, the arguments are passed by reference, so changes made to parameters inside the function also affect the original arguments. Functions can have default values for arguments if they are not passed in a call. Keyword arguments allow specifying argument names instead of just position. Variable argument lists (*args and **kwargs) allow functions to accept flexible numbers of positional and keyword arguments. Anonymous functions, defined with lambda, provide short, inline functions without a name.

Uploaded by

Pawan Nani
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Functions in Python

A function is a set of statements that take inputs, do some specific computation and
produces output. The idea is to put some commonly or repeatedly done task
together and make a function, so that instead of writing the same code again and
again for different inputs, we can call the function.
Python provides built-in functions like print(), etc. but we can also create your own
functions. These functions are called user-defined functions.
# A simple Python function to check
# whether x is even or odd
def evenOdd( x ):
    if (x % 2 == 0):
        print "even"
    else:
        print "odd"
  
# Driver code
evenOdd(2)
evenOdd(3)
Output:
even
odd
Pass by Reference or pass by value?
One important thing to note is, in Python every variable name is a reference. When
we pass a variable to a function, a new reference to the object is created. Parameter
passing in Python is same as reference passing in Java.

# Here x is a new reference to same list lst


def myFun(x):
   x[0] = 20
  
# Driver Code (Note that lst is modified
# after function call.
lst = [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15] 
myFun(lst);
print(lst) 
Output:
[20, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
When we pass a reference and change the received reference to something else,
the connection between passed and received parameter is broken. For example,
consider below program.
def myFun(x):
  
   # After below line link of x with previous
   # object gets broken. A new object is assigned
   # to x.
   x = [20, 30, 40]
  
# Driver Code (Note that lst is not modified
# after function call.
lst = [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15] 
myFun(lst);
print(lst) 
Output:
[10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
Another example to demonstrate that reference link is broken if we assign a new
value (inside the function).
def myFun(x):
  
   # After below line link of x with previous
   # object gets broken. A new object is assigned
   # to x.
   x = 20
  
# Driver Code (Note that lst is not modified
# after function call.
x = 10 
myFun(x);
print(x) 
Output:
10
Exercise: Try to guess the output of following code.
def swap(x, y):
    temp = x;
    x = y;
    y = temp;
  
# Driver code
x =2
y =3
swap(x, y)
print(x)
print(y)
Output:
2
3
Default arguments:
A default argument is a parameter that assumes a default value if a value is not
provided in the function call for that argument.The following example illustrates
Default arguments.
# Python program to demonstrate
# default arguments
def myFun(x, y=50):
    print("x: ", x)
    print("y: ", y)
  
# Driver code (We call myFun() with only
# argument)
myFun(10)
Output:
('x: ', 10)
('y: ', 50)
Like C++ default arguments, any number of arguments in a function can have a
default value. But once we have a default argument, all the arguments to its right
must also have default values.

Keyword arguments:
The idea is to allow caller to specify argument name with values so that caller does
not need to remember order of parameters.
# Python program to demonstrate Keyword Arguments
def student(firstname, lastname): 
     print(firstname, lastname) 
    
    
# Keyword arguments                  
student(firstname ='Geeks', lastname ='Practice')    
student(lastname ='Practice', firstname ='Geeks')  
Output:
('Geeks', 'Practice')
('Geeks', 'Practice')
Variable length arguments:
We can have both normal and keyword variable number of arguments. Please
see this for details.
# Python program to illustrate  
# *args for variable number of arguments
def myFun(*argv): 
    for arg in argv: 
        print (arg)
    
myFun('Hello', 'Welcome', 'to', 'GeeksforGeeks') 
Output:
Hello
Welcome
to
GeeksforGeeks
# Python program to illustrate  
# *kargs for variable number of keyword arguments
  
def myFun(**kwargs): 
    for key, value in kwargs.items():
        print ("%s == %s" %(key, value))
  
# Driver code
myFun(first ='Geeks', mid ='for', last='Geeks')    
Output:
last == Geeks
mid == for
first == Geeks
Anonymous functions: In Python, anonymous function means that a function is
without a name. As we already know that def keyword is used to define the normal
functions and the lambda keyword is used to create anonymous functions. Please
see this for details.
# Python code to illustrate cube of a number  
# using labmda function 
    
cube = lambda x: x*x*x 
print(cube(7)) 
Output:
343

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