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A function is like a little program that you can use to perform a specific action. Python has a lot of functions that can do many wonderful things. However, it may not always be the ideal function that you are looking for. At that time, you will need to create your own function so that it perform your own idea task accordingly.

So how do you define a function? A Python function using the def statement, providing a name for your function and specifying either an empty or populated argument list within parentheses. The standard form looks something like this

def <function name> ( <arguments> ):
  <your function code goes here>

A function start with the def statement. It then follow with a function name, well you can give it any name. Arguments lists are optional, but the parentheses are NOT. A colon (:) follows the closing parenthesis and indicates the start of your function code.

Let’s create your first Python function in the following example.

>>> def Hello():
  print "Hello World!"
>>> print Hello()
Hello World!

Let’s create another function which take 1 argument.

>>> def Hello(name):
  print "Hello, " + name
>>> Hello('John')
Hello, John

The following function will take 2 arguments. It add both value and return to the caller.

>>> def GetTotal(val1, val2):
  total = val1 + val2
  return total
>>> print 'Total is %d' % GetTotal(10, 8)
Total is 18

Function arguments default value:

Python function allow you to set the default value for its arguments. In the following example, we set ‘nobody’ as a default value for name argument. When Hello() function is called without any argument, it print the default name value. On the other hand, when Hello() function is called with name argument provided, it will print the provided name value instead of the default value.
>>> def Hello(name='Nobody'):
  print "Hello, " + name
>>> Hello()
Hello, Nobody
>>> Hello('John')
Hello, John

Passing list of arguments:

Sometimes, you may want to pass more than one arguments at a time to a function. For example, instead of calling the same function for multiple times, you can call the function once only with list of parameters. In the following example, the Colors function take a list of colors. It then loop through the tuple and print each of its element.
>>> def Colors(*colors):
  for p in colors:
    print "Color: " + p
   
>>> Colors('Red', 'Blue', 'Cyan', 'Green', 'Yellow', 'White')
Color: Red
Color: Blue
Color: Cyan
Color: Green
Color: Yellow
Color: White

Scoping:

Scoping is about how the variable work within a Python function. Take a look at the following example. x is a global variable which assigned to 10. The ChangeValue() function will re-assigned x to 5 and it then print the value x.
>>> x = 10
>>> def ChangeValue():
  x = 5
  print 'x = %d' % (x)
The following is the result after you run the code. Notice that after ChangeValue() function is called, the value x is still 10 instead of 5.
>>> x
10
>>> ChangeValue()
x = 5
>>> x
10
The assignment x = 5 is performed in this inner scope of ChangeValue() function and therefore it doesn’t affect the x in the outer (global) scope. Variables that are used inside functions like this are called local variables. If you need to reference the global variable then you will need to use the global keyword for any variable you wish to reference to. In the following example, notice that x is declared as global before the new value assignment.
>>> x = 10
>>> def ChangeValue():
  global x
  x = 5
  print 'x = %d' % (x)
Try to run the code now and you should get the following result. x is now change to 5 after ChangeValue() function is called.
>>> x
10
>>> ChangeValue()
x = 5
>>> x
5

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