The return statement makes a python function to exit and hand back a value to its caller. The objective of functions in general is to take in inputs and return something. A return statement, once executed, immediately halts execution of a function, even if it is not the last statement in the function.
Functions that return values are sometimes called fruitful functions.
Example
def sum(a,b): return a+b sum(5,16)
Output
21
Everything in python, almost everything is an object. Lists, dictionaries, tuples are also python objects. The code below shows a python function that returns a python object; a dictionary
Example
# This function returns a dictionary def foo(): d = dict(); d['str'] = "Tutorialspoint" d['x'] = 50 return d print foo()
Output
{'x': 50, 'str': 'Tutorialspoint'}