Unit 03:

Functions: Parameter Passing

and Return Statements
Anthony Estey
CSC 110: Fundamentals of Programming: I
University of Victoria
Unit 03 Overview

u Reading:
u Textbook: 5.1 – 5.8
u Learning Objectives: (You should be able to…)
u perform a complete function design, including documentation and test cases
u pass arguments to a function
u return values from a function
u differentiate between local and global variables
u identify the scope of a variable

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What we know already…

u We have used the print() function since the first lecture

u When we call the print function, we pass an argument representing
the information we want to be displayed
u Example: print("Anthony") and print(num)
u Arguments: "Anthony" the first time, num the second

u We have also defined and called our own functions:

def print_greeting(): Call: print_greeting()
print("Welcome to CSC110")
print("We are programming")

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Local variables and scope

u A local variable is when we assign a variable a value within a function:

u that variable belongs to the function it was assigned in
u it can only be accessed within that function (by statements that are local to
that function) after it has been assigned
u different functions may have local variables with the same name, but they are
completely independent of each other
u it is an error if a different function attempts to access the variable

u A variable’s scope are the parts of the program in which the variable
can be accessed
u for a local variable: its scope begins when the variable is assigned, and
continues through to the end of its indented section
u variable-scope.py
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variable-scope.py

def fn1():
x = 5
scope of x (it can only be accessed in fn1()
print(x)

def fn2():
print(x)

def main():
fn1()
fn2()

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variable-scope.py
def fn1():
x = 5
print(x)
fn1() has a local variable x

def fn2():
fn2() has a local variable x, which is
x = 3
handled completely independently from the
print(x) x in fn1()

def main():
fn1() neither x can be accessed from main
fn2()
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Sharing information across functions

u Sometimes we want our functions to work independently…

u but sometimes we also want to share data across functions!

u We have seen that the print() function can be given an argument

u We can also define our functions to accept input data

u Terminology is confusing:
u from the point of view of the function call, these are called arguments
u from the point of view of the function definition, they are called parameters

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Defining functions that take a parameter

u A parameter is a variable in a function definition

u General form: u Concrete example:

def fn_name(param_name): def print_val(val):

tab statement1 print(val)
tab statement2
tab … print_val(5) à 5
print_val(22) à 22

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Parameter passing and scope

u The scope of a parameter variable is the same as that of a local

variable in a function

def do_some_math(x):
y = 3
if (x < y): scope of x and y
z = 2 * x is the whole
scope of z
print("z is:", z) function body
print("done")

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Parameter Passing complexities

u We can add any number of parameters, with multiple types:

# (str, float -> None)

# (int, int -> None) # prints transcript information for
# prints product of x*y # given student and gpa
def multiply(x, y): def transcript(name, gpa):
result = x * y print("Name:", name)
print(result) print("GPA:", gpa)

multiply(2,3) à 6 transcript("Anthony", 5.8)

multiply(9,4) à 36 transcript("Sam", 7.8)
multiply(0,13) à 0 transcript("Alix", 8.2)

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This can get complicated!

u Remember, we want our functions to:

u work correctly (produce the intended result)
u be easy to read and understand, so…
u they are easy to use (know how to call them and how they should work)
u they are easy to extend or update in the future

u It is important to come up with a process we can follow when we

design our functions this semester
u This will be our “house style” talked about in the first lecture

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Steps in a complete function design

1. Signature:
u The number and types of the arguments passed to the function
2. Purpose:
u A short explanation of what the function does
3. Examples/Tests:
u Provide some example values that we would call the function with…
u … and what you expect the function to produce given these values
4. Definition
u write the function definition so work as intended
5. Verification
u Run your code and ensure the examples produce the results you intended
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Complete function design example
# (int -> None)
1.Signature
# prints out double the given number
def double(num): 2.Purpose
print(num*2)
3.Tests
def main(): 4.Definition
double(3) # expects 6
double(7) # expects 14 5.Then run it!

main()

u Try it yourself: Design a function that prints out whether a given

number is even or odd
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