🌟 Python Functions: Meet the Code Wizard; Zino and the Magic of Functions.
Once upon a time in Codeville, there lived a young wizard-in-training named Zino. Zino was curious, sharp, and had just discovered the secret scrolls of Python.
One day, Zino met a mentor — a wise, old programmer named Mr. Byte. Mr. Byte said, “Zino, if you truly want to master Python, you must learn the art of functions.”
🧠 “So what’s a function?” Zino asked.
Mr. Byte smiled and said, “Imagine you had to say ‘Hello!’ to your dragon friend every time you saw him. Instead of typing the same message over and over again, you could create a spell… I mean, a function!”
So, he scribbled this into his spellbook:
def hello():
print('Hello!')
“This is your first function,” said Mr. Byte. “You gave it a name,
hello, and a body — the instructions inside.”
To cast this spell (run the function), Zino just needed to call its name:
hello()
Boom! Just like magic, it printed:
Hello!
🎯 Functions That Listen
Soon, Zino wanted to greet specific people. Not just “Hello!” but “Hello Zino!” or “Hello Nia!” So Mr. Byte taught him how to make his function accept a parameter — like a listener that responds to a name:
def hello(name):
print('Hello ' + name + '!')
So when Zino typed:
hello('Roger')
It said:
Hello Roger!
Mr. Byte whispered, “What you pass in when calling the function is called an argument, but inside the function, it’s known as a parameter.”
Kinda confusing at first, but Zino got the hang of it.
😎 Default Values: For When You’re Lazy
What if Zino didn’t want to always type a name? Mr. Byte taught him how to set a default value.
def hello(name='my friend'):
print('Hello ' + name + '!')
Now, Zino could just do:
hello()
And it would say:
Hello my friend!
But if he did type a name:
hello('Syd')
It would say:
Hello Syd!
📦 Functions with Multiple Gifts (Parameters)
Let’s say Zino wanted to greet someone and mention their age — easy peasy:
def hello(name, age):
print('Hello ' + name + ', you are ' + str(age) + ' years old!')
So:
hello('Roger', 8)
Would give:
Hello Roger, you are 8 years old!
🎲 Changing Values Inside Functions?
Now Zino was curious: “What if I change a number inside a function — will it change outside too?”
def change(value):
value = 2
val = 1
change(val)
print(val) # ?
The answer?
1
Mr. Byte explained: “Numbers are immutable. Changing them inside the function doesn’t change them outside.”
But if Zino had passed something mutable, like a list, it’d be a different story.
🎁 Returning Treasures with Return
Zino asked, “Can a function give something back?”
“Absolutely,” said Mr. Byte.
def hello(name):
print('Hello ' + name + '!')
return name
So if Zino did:
returned_name = hello('Zino')
print(returned_name)
He’d see:
Hello Zino!
Zino
Cool, right?
He could also return nothing:
def hello(name):
print('Hello ' + name + '!')
return
Or return only if something is true:
def hello(name):
if not name:
return
print('Hello ' + name + '!')
So if he called hello(''), the function would just quietly do nothing.
🎉 Returning Multiple Things
Zino got extra fancy and returned multiple values:
def hello(name):
print('Hello ' + name + '!')
return name, 'Roger', 8
So:
print(hello('Syd'))
Would give:
Hello Syd!
('Syd', 'Roger', 8)
It’s a tuple — a package of goodies 🎁.
And with that, Zino became a master of Python functions — creating, calling, customizing, and returning values like a real coding wizard 🧙🏽♂️✨.
🔁 Quick Recap Practice Time!
Okay superstar, let’s see what you remember. Try these out!👇
- What’s the difference between a parameter and an argument?
-
What will this code print?
def greet(name='Gen Z Coder'): print('Hi ' + name + '!') greet() - True or False: If you pass a list to a function and change it, the change affects the original list.
- Write a function
add_numbers(a, b)that returns the sum ofaandb. -
What is returned by this function?
def info(): return 'Python', 3, True print(info())
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