Now a function can read a variable from the main program inside a function, but it cannot write to that variable. This can cause some confusion, and rightly so. So lets not do that. Instead, we can change how a function behaves by passing values to a function. These values are called parameters. An argument…
Let’s first look at a void function, as they are the simplest form of function. Additionally, we’re not going to pass any variables into this function. That means, every time it is called, the exact same thing will run. The first line of our function, is called the function header. It starts with def, letting…
Functions allow us to write several lines of code, that may need to be called at different times in our code, and to call all of the code, with using just the function name, and some parameters. Sometimes functions are used to make code more readable, calling a function by a logical name, rather than…
When you work with Loops, you’ll find life is a bit easier if you know some of these tips. Simplifying Math The book calls this first tip Augmented Operators, other languages refer to it as shortcut math. Either way, the end result is the same. Quite often you will be working with a variable and…
Repetition structures, or loops, allow a statement, or set of statements to run repeatedly. As we’ve mentioned before, computers are stupid. They are bad at doing complex things, and in order to do something complex, you have to break it down into its simplest forms. However, what they are good at, is doing lots of…
If you need to include an If statement, inside of an Else statement, you might need an elif command, which combines the two of them together. Let’s look at an example real quick. Notice that everything revolves around these two numbers, and checking them. Since num1 cannot be both greater than and less than num2,…
We’ve seen in a previous article about Python’s If Statement how we write our If statement to change the flow of our program, only running some code based upon if certain conditions are met. We’re going to continue that notion, but increase the complexity of our If Statement. Multiple Statements A common occurrence is we…
We’ve looked at decision statements in flowcharts and pseudo-code before. Now we want to look at how to build them in Python. Decisions are very important because they allow you to skip over a section of code that isn’t relevant to you. In its most basic format, an if statement in Python follows the following…
