[Tutor] Question about Functions

[Joel Goldstick]

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 1:49 PM, novo shot <novoshot at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear tutors:
>
> The following is an example I found in the Raspberry Pi for Dummies book:
>
> #function test
>
> def theFunction(message):
>     print "I don't get ", message
>     return "ARRRGH!"
>
> theFunction("this")
>

the above line invokes theFunction, and prints "I don't get this".  It
returns "ARRRGH" but you con't assign that to a name, so it is lost.

>
> result=theFunction("this either")
>

Now you call theFunction again and it prints "I don't get this either".
You save the ARRRGH bit in result

> print "reply is: ", result
>

You print the value of result with is ARRRGH

>
> ---------------------------------------------
> The result of this code looks like this:
>
> I don't get  this
> I don't get  this either
> reply is:  ARRRGH!
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Here's what I don't understand:
>
> When I declare a variable to be equal as the fucntion
> (result=theFunction("this either")) is Python also executing the
> function?
>

Yes it is

>
> The way I see it, I only called for the function once before printing
> ARRRGH!! Then after that I declared a variable and then I print.
>
> You see it wrong.  Each time you have theFunction(...) in your code that
function is run

> This is how I expected the result to look like:
>
> I don't get this
> reply is: I don't get this either
> ARRRGH!
>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Can you help me understand? I can't move forward until I understand
> how Python solves this code.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Optional
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-- 
Joel Goldstick
http://joelgoldstick.com
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