CMP 4266

Software Development UG1

Lecture – 3

(Based on Gaddis, T., Starting out with Python 3e, Pearson Education)

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Outline

 Functions
– Introduction
– Benefits of Functions
– Different Types of Functions
– Defining and Calling Function
– Local Variables Vs Global Variables
– Function Arguments
– Functions and Modules

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Introduction to Functions

 Function: group of statements within a program that perform

as specific task

– Usually one task of a large program

– Functions can be executed in order to perform overall program task

 Modularized program: program wherein each task within the

program is in its own function

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Using functions to divide and conquer a large task

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Benefits of Using Functions

 The benefits of using functions include:

– Simpler code
– Code reuse
- write the code once and call it multiple times
– Better testing and debugging
- Can test and debug each function individually
– Faster development
– Easier facilitation of teamwork
- Different team members can write different functions

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Different Types of Functions

 A void function:
– Simply executes the statements it contains and then terminates.

 A value-returning function:
– Executes the statements it contains, and then it returns a value back to
the statement that called it.
- The input, int, and float functions are examples of value-
returning functions.

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Defining and Calling a Function

 Function definition: specifies what function does

def function_name(parameter1, ……):
statement
statement
return..
 Function header: first line of function
– Includes keyword def and function name, followed by parentheses and
colon
 Block: set of statements that belong together as a group
– Example: the statements included in a function
– Each block must be indented, i.e. lines in block must begin with the
same number of spaces
- Use tabs or spaces to indent lines in a block, but not both as this
can confuse the Python interpreter
- Spyder IDE automatically indents the lines in a block

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Defining and Calling a Function

 Functions are given names

– Function naming rules:
- Cannot use key words as a function name
- Cannot contain spaces
- First character must be a letter or underscore
- All other characters must be a letter, number or underscore
- Uppercase and lowercase characters are distinct

 Function name should be descriptive of the task carried out by

the function
– Often includes a verb e.g. calculate_average

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Defining and Calling a Function

 Call a function to execute it. When a function is called:

– Interpreter jumps to the function and executes statements in the block

– Interpreter jumps back to part of program that called the function

- Known as function return

 main function: called when the program starts

– Calls other functions when they are needed

– Defines the mainline logic of the program

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Defining and Calling Function (Example)

 We need to write a program that inputs two numbers from keyboard and
displays the sum of the numbers.
– Apply divide and conquer technique to identify subtasks
- Input number(s)
- Compute Sum
- Display sum

- Implement a function to realize each sub task

- Write a main function to coordinate the functions to achieve the overall task.

- Call main function to execute the program.

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Defining and Calling Function (Example)

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Defining and Calling Function (Example)

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

3.1 Exercise - Parameters & passing arguments
(10 minutes)
In-class
Exercise
 Develop a basic calculator, which
takes user input, apply
mathematical operators and prints
the result.
 For this program develop
– A function that adds 2 user inputs, and
then prints the result.
– A second function that multiplies the
same 2 inputs and prints the result.

CMP4266 , School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Variable Scope and Local Variables

 Scope: the part of a program in which a variable may be accessed.

According to scope variable are of two types: local variables and global
variables.

 Local variable: variable that is assigned a value inside a function

– The scope of local variable is the function in which it is created
– Belongs to the function in which it was created
- Only statements inside that function can access it, error will occur if
another function tries to access the variable

 Different functions may have local variables with the same name
– Each function does not see the other function’s local variables, so no
confusion

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Local Variables (Example)

Enter a number :12 First score is : 55

Traceback (most recent call last):
Second score is : 75
File "C:/BCU/Teachin…… main()
File "C:/BCU/Teaching….. main First score is : 55
print("The number is ", n)
NameError: name 'n' is not defined

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Global Variables

 Global variable: created by assignment statement written

outside all the functions
– Can be accessed by any statement in the program file, including from
within a function
– If a function needs to assign a value to the global variable, the global
variable must be re-declared within the function
- General format: global variable_name

 Reasons to avoid using global variables:

– Global variables make debugging difficult
- Many locations in the code could be causing a wrong variable value
– Functions that use global variables are usually dependent on those
variables
- Makes function hard to transfer to another program
– Global variables make a program hard to understand
CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.
Global Variables (Example)

Score at beginning : 65 Score at beginning : 65

Score in function : 55 Score in function : 55
Score at end : 65 Score at end : 55

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Passing Arguments to Functions

 Argument: piece of data that is sent into a function

– Function can use argument in calculations
– When calling the function, the argument is placed in parentheses
following the function name

 Parameter variable: variable that is assigned the value of an argument

when the function is called
– Scope of a parameter: the function in which the parameter is used
 Arguments are passed by position to corresponding parameters
– First parameter receives value of first argument, second parameter
receives value of second argument, etc.
 Changes made to a parameter value within the function do not affect the
arguments

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Passing Arguments to Functions
Parameters

Arguments

N before calling sqr function : 5

num1 : 13
num2 : 18 Num before assignment : 5
Sum is : 31 Num after assignment : 7
N after calling sqr function : 5

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Keyword Arguments

 Keyword argument: argument that specifies which parameter the value

should be passed to
– Position when calling function is irrelevant
– General Format:
function_name(parameter=value)
 Possible to mix keyword and positional arguments when calling a function
– Positional arguments must appear first
 Example
def compute_interest(principal, rate, period): SyntaxError: non-keyword
interest = principal * rate * period arg after keyword arg
return interest
TypeError: compute_interest() got multiple values for
argument 'rate'
compute_interest(100, 0.7, 6)

compute_interest(rate=0.7, period=6, compute_interest(rate = 0.7, 10, 5)

principal=100)
compute_interest(10, 5, rate = 0.7)
compute_interest(500, period=6, rate=0.7)

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Default Parameter Values

 Python allows parameter variables of a function to have default values.

– Function can be called with fewer arguments than it is defined, i.e. possible to
skip the parameters that have default value during function call.
 Example

def volume(width, height, depth = 2):

return width * height * depth

print(volume(2, 3, 3))
print(volume(2, 3))

– Output

18
12

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Returning Multiple Values - A

 In Python, a function can return multiple values

– Specified after the return statement separated by commas
- Format: return expression1, expression2, etc.
– When you call such a function in an assignment statement, you need a
separate variable on the left side of the = operator to receive each
returned value
 Example
def get_name():
first = input("Enter your first name : ")
last = input("Enter your last name : ")
return first, last

first_name, last_name = get_name()

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Returning Multiple Values - B

 When a function returns multiple values, simply the function

returns a tuple. For example:

def myfun(a, b, c):

result = myfun(1,2,3)
a = a*2
print(result)
b = b*2
c = c*2
>>>
return a, b, c (2, 4, 6)
>>>

a, b, c = myfun(1, 2, 3)
print(a, b, c)
result = myfun(1,2,3)
print(result[0], result[1], result[2])

>>> >>>
246 246
>>> >>>

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

 3.2 Exercise – Returning Multiple Values
(15 minutes)
In-class
Exercise

 Create a function “calculate” that takes three parameters; two

numbers and one string. The string is used to indicate the arithmetic
operation to apply on the two numbers. E.g. to add two numbers you
need to run calculate(2,6, “+”)
 The function must use an if statement that uses the sign operator
string to decide on the arithmetic operation to be done on the two
numbers.
 The function should returns the answer + an explanation. For
example, running calculate(2, 6, “*” ) should return “multiplying 2
by 6 = 12”
 The function “calculate” should be able to call other 4 functions to
perform 4 arithmetic operations , addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division.
CMP4266 , School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.
Storing Functions in Modules

 In large, complex programs, it is important to keep code organized

 Modularization: grouping related functions in modules
– Makes program easier to understand, test, and maintain
– Make it easier to reuse code for multiple different programs
 Module is a file that contains Python code
– Contains function definition but does not contain calls to the functions
- Importing programs will call the functions
 Rules for module names:
– File name should end in .py
– Cannot be the same as a Python keyword
 Import module using import statement
import module_name
module_name.function_name

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.

Standard Library Functions and the import Statement

 Standard library: library of pre-written functions that comes with Python

– Library functions perform tasks that programmers commonly need
- Example: print, input, range
 Some library functions built into Python interpreter
– To use, just call the function
– Can be viewed the list of built-in functions by the command
dir(__builtins__)
– https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html
 To view standard Python modules visit the following page
– https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html

CMP 4266, School of CS & DT, Birmingham City University.