EXTREME NOOBIE

[skeetor]

Hey, thanks for the reply.  The example "def" helped me understand the its
usage.

<piet at cs.uu.nl> wrote in message news:uitsk5rrf.fsf at cs.uu.nl...
> >>>>> "skeetor" <skeetornospam at bellsouth.net> (S) writes:
>
> S> Whats this i hear about a function?  I just downloaded  this Python
thing,
> S> and i am going through the online tutorials when I get to the "defining
of a
> S> function..."  The tutorial is real basic until that part (thats where
it
> S> starts assuming you know how to program, Doh!)
>
> S> Just wondering  if some kind person can clearly and adequately explain
this
> S> defining of a function thing...
>
> A function is a piece of program that does some work and that you can use
> in other parts of your program. E.g. when you want to calculate some
> formula a number of times, but each time with different parameters, you
> make it into a function.
>
> Your function has zero or more parameters which you have to give names,
> that can be used inside the function definition. At every placve where you
> use the function you have to supply values for the parameters.
>
> Lets take an example: you want to calculate the sum of the squares of two
> numbers. Let's call the function sumsquares. You can use any name for the
> parameters (any valid identifier, let's call them a and b (Normally you
> would use more descriptive names):
>
> The function definition is:
>
> def sumsquares(a, b):
>         return a*a+b*b
>
> return tells which value the function will produce. In this simple case
the
> function is just one statement, but in real life most functions will be
> bigger and contain several statements.
>
> Now let's use this function to calculate the sum of the squares of 3 and 4
> and print the result:
>
> print sumsquares(3, 4).
>
> This will print 25
>
> Of course you can do other things with the function value, e.g. assign it
> to a variable or use it in another calculation, e.g.:
>
> res = 2*sumsquares(5, 12)
>
> Some function don't calculate a result, they just do something for you. In
> that case return without any value can be used, or if it is the last
> statement of the function, it can be omitted. To use such a function you
> just use it as a statement.
> --
> Piet van Oostrum <piet at cs.uu.nl>
> URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~piet [PGP]
> Private email: P.van.Oostrum at hccnet.nl