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Python Function Tutorial – Part IV

Python Function Tutorial – Part IV

Posted February 18, 2020 at 11:03 am
Jay Parmar
QuantInsti

See Part IPart II  and Part III of this installment to learn more about Python functions.

Python functions with a single argument

A function can be called as many times as we want, and Python will execute the statements within its body. The Python function we mentioned above, neither takes any input nor does it return any output. It just prints the statement written within it. If the function has to take any input, it goes within the parentheses as a parameter during the function definition. Parameters are the values we supply to the function so that the function can do something utilizing those values.

Note the terminology used here:

  • Parameters: They are specified within parentheses in the function definition, separated by commas.
  • Arguments: When we call a Python function, values that parameters take are to be given as arguments in a comma separated format.

The modified version of the above simple Python function explains these two terms:

# Here ‘person_name' is a parameter.
def greet(person_name):
“””Prints greetings along with the value received via the parameter.”””
print(‘Hello ‘ + person_name + ‘!')

The above function definition defines person_name as a parameter to the function greet, and it can be called as shown below:

# Calling the function
greet(‘Amigo')

The above call to the function greet takes a string Amigo as an argument and the output will be as follows:

Hello Amigo!

In the next installment, the author will discuss Python functions with multiple arguments and a return statement.

Visit https://www.quantinsti.com/ for ready-to-use Python functions as applied in trading and data analysis.

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