COMPUTER ENGINEERING PRACTICE 2

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Functions
A function is a named sequence of
statements that belong together.
Their primary purpose is to help us
organize programs into chunks that
match how we think about the problem.
Python provides several built-in
functions such as print(), len() or type(),
but you can also define your own
functions to use within your programs.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Syntax
The basic syntax
for a Python
function definition
is:

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Create a Function
To define a Python function, use def keyword. Here’s the simplest
possible function that prints ‘Hello, World!’ on the screen.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Call a Function
The def statement only creates a
function but does not call it.
After the def has run, you can call (run)
the function by adding parentheses after
the function’s name.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Pass Arguments
You can send information to a function
by passing values, known as arguments.
Arguments are declared after the
function name in parentheses.
When you call a function with
arguments, the values of those
arguments are copied to their
corresponding parameters (or
arguments) inside the function.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Pass Arguments
You can send as many arguments
as you like, separated by commas
,.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Types of Arguments
Python handles function arguments in a very flexible manner,
compared to other languages. It supports multiple types of
arguments in the function definition. Here’s the list:
1. Positional Arguments
2. Keyword Arguments
3. Default Arguments
4. Variable Length Positional Arguments (*args)
5. Variable Length Keyword Arguments (**kwargs)

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Chapter 3: Functions
1. Positional Arguments
The most common are positional
arguments, whose values are copied
to their corresponding arguments in
order.
The only downside of positional
arguments is that you need to pass
arguments in the order in which they
are defined.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Exercises
a) Write a program to create a function that takes two arguments,
name and age, and print their value.

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Chapter 3: Functions It is possible to combine positional and
keyword arguments in a single call. If you do
2. Keyword Arguments so, specify the positional arguments before
keyword arguments
To avoid positional argument def func(age, name, job)
confusion, you can pass arguments
using the names of their
corresponding parameters.
In this case, the order of the
arguments no longer matters
because arguments are matched by
name, not by position.

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Chapter 3: Functions
3. Default Arguments Defaults allow you to make selected
arguments optional
You can specify default values for
arguments when defining a function.
The default value is used if the
function is called without a
corresponding argument.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Exercises
b) Write a program to create a function show_employee() using the
following conditions.
 It should accept the employee’s name and salary and display both.
 If the salary is missing in the function call then assign default value
9000 to salary.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Variable Length Arguments (*args and **kwargs)
Variable length arguments are useful when you want to create
functions that take unlimited number of arguments.
Unlimited in the sense that you do not know beforehand how
many arguments can be passed to your function by the user.
This feature is often referred to as var-args.

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Chapter 3: Functions
4. Variable Length Arguments (*args)
 When you prefix a parameter with
an asterisk * , it collects all the
unmatched positional arguments
into a tuple.
 Because it is a normal tuple object,
you can perform any operation that
a tuple supports, like indexing,
iteration etc.

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Chapter 3: Functions
5. Variable Length Keyword Arguments (**kwargs)
 The ** syntax is similar, but it
only works for keyword
arguments.
 It collects them into a new
dictionary, where the argument
names are the keys, and their
values are the corresponding
dictionary values.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Return Value
To return a value from a function,
simply use a return statement.
Once a return statement is
executed, nothing else in the
function body is executed.

Remember! a python function always returns a

value. So, if you do not include any return
statement, it automatically returns None.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Return Multiple Values
Python has the ability to return
multiple values, something missing
from many other languages.
You can do this by separating return
values with a comma.
When you return multiple values,
Python actually packs them in a
single tuple and returns it. You can
then use multiple assignment to
unpack the parts of the returned
tuple.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Exercises
c) Write a program to create function func1() to accept a variable
length of arguments and print their sum.
d) Write a program to create function calculation() such that it can
accept two variables and calculate addition and subtraction. Also, it
must return both addition and subtraction in a single return
statement.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Composition
One of the most useful features of Python is its ability to take small
building blocks and compose them.

For example, the

argument of a function And even
can be any type of function calls
expression, including
arithmetic operators SAA2022
Chapter 3: Functions
• Recursion
A recursive function is a function
that calls itself and repeats its
behavior until some condition is
met to return a result.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Assigning Functions to Variables
 When Python runs a def
statement, it creates a new
function object and assigns
it to the function’s name.
 You can assign a different
name to it anytime and call
through the new name.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Python Function Executes at Runtime
 Because Python treats def as an
executable statement, it can
appear anywhere a normal
statement can.
 For example you can nest a
function inside an if statement
to select between alternative
definitions.

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Chapter 3: Functions
• Exercises
e) Create an outer function that will accept two parameters, a and b
• Create an inner function inside an outer function that will calculate the
addition of a and b.
• At last, an outer function will add 5 into addition and return it.
f) Write a program to create a recursive function to calculate the sum of
numbers from 0 to 10.
• A recursive function is a function that calls itself, again and again.

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END
OF Congratulations. Here’s a cookie.

CHAPTER 3

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