Functions in python

[dopeobama]

Functions are declared with the def keyword. Optional arguments are set in the function declaration after the mandatory arguments by being assigned a default value. For named arguments, the name of the argument is assigned a value. Functions can return a tuple (and using tuple unpacking you can effectively return multiple values). Lambda functions are ad hoc functions that are comprised of a single statement. Parameters are passed by reference, but immutable types (tuples, ints, strings, etc) cannot be changed in the caller by the callee. This is because only the memory location of the item is passed, and binding another object to a variable discards the old one, so immutable types are replaced. For example:

# Same as def funcvar(x): return x + 1
funcvar = lambda x: x + 1
>>> print(funcvar(1))
2

# an_int and a_string are optional, they have default values
# if one is not passed (2 and "A default string", respectively).
def passing_example(a_list, an_int=2, a_string="A default string"):
a_list.append("A new item")
an_int = 4
return a_list, an_int, a_string

>>> my_list = [1, 2, 3]
>>> my_int = 10
>>> print(passing_example(my_list, my_int))
([1, 2, 3, 'A new item'], 4, "A default string")
>>> my_list
[1, 2, 3, 'A new item']
>>> my_int
10