Functions in Python

In Python a function is some reusable code that takes arguments(s) as input does some computation and then returns a result. We have already seen functions in previous lessons. For example, the print() command that we used is actually a function that allows us to print something.

In Python, there are two kinds of functions:

• Built-in functions that are provided as part of Python - print(), type(), float(), int() ...
• Functions that we define ourselves and then use

The built-in function names are treated as "new" reserved words, and should not be used as variable names. We can define a new function using the def reserved word (We will see this soon).

We call/invoke the function by using the function name, parenthesis and arguments in an expression.

Example 1 - Max()

The following is an example of the in-built max() function in Python. The max() returns the largest of its arguments.

1>>> max