--Originally published at Codebuster

So as said before, functions are pretty useful, but what if we need one that does not come prepackaged? or even better, what if we want to create one our own, its fairly simple.

The first thing we need to do to start wrtting a function is define it, using “def” a space and the name you want to assign to your function. You want to be careful how you name your function, so it doesnt get mixed up with other values,

Next you should write the parameters for your function between parentheses so like this:

def function1 (parameter):

here you would write what you want your function should do

 

Here is an actual function to calculate the volume of a figure

Which would give back:

That’s as easy as it is, enjoy!

--Originally published at Codebuster

Functions are one of the most useful aspects of programming, we can view them as a routine, that is to say a set of actions to accomplish something. A way to think about it is this: every morning before leaving for school I: change my clothes, brush my teeth, pack my bag, and spray some perfume, this individual actions all fall in the “function” of getting ready.

Generally, functions “take in data” (input) process it and finally “return” a result (output).

A big advantage of functions is that they can be reusable. Just like try to avoid using plastic bottles not to contaminate the environment we try not to use the same lines of codes over and over again, and instead we use a function.

Luckily, Python (like most programming languages) comes with a prepackaged, prewritten set of functions, which you can access by clicking the package.

Calling a function basically means to tell it to run. To call a function you need to type its name and the parameters in the brackets.

>>print (parameter):

 

--Originally published at Codebuster

For us, input can mean something someone else says, and in coding it is not so different. Input is a way to interact with the uer by asking them to assign a value to something.

There can be different kinds of input according to the variable it will store, which can be integers, floats, simple string or so on. You can define what kind of input your user will introduce by defining it when you are writting a code, as follows:

Likewise, if you are going to be using decimals you can specify it by using float

Regardless, for basic handling of the input, like printing it, you can simply write it as

variable= input(“Whatever you want to put”)

--Originally published at Codebuster

Fun fact: “Anything you view in your computer monitor is output”. That sounds a little bit intimidating, but in reality the basics of output can be fairly simple.

One of the first (if not the first) built-in classes people learn in any programming language is print. In fact, we have already worked with it in the Hello World program. Output is basically the computer communicating to us the results of what we aked the code to do. That easy program we made, already taught us output through print.

Print is useful when you want a value, variable, statement etc. in text. All you have to do is call the built-in class print and write what you want to be displayed (dont forget to put this between parenthesis). If it is a simple statement you should write it between brackets, but you can also define a variable and later ask the program to print it (notice that when we print variables we don’t use brackets). Even better, you can print several things at once:

And we get:

Fun fact No.2, when you are using print if you write you code like this:

print (“Something”+variable)

The message will appear with no spaces between the words. However, if you write it as:

print (“Something”,variable)

Automatically a space is left between the two values.

--Originally published at Codebuster

Each programming language comes with a set of coding conventions, which are basically a 101 for recommended programminh styles, file organization, programming principles and such. Their main function is for people to improve readability of the source code making software maintanance easier.

This cinventions for python are appropiately called the Zen of Python and they are 20 (sometimes considered 19) principles written by Tim Peters around June 1999, and read as follows.

 

Beautiful is better than ugly.

Explicit is better than implicit.

Simple is better than complex.

Complex is better than complicated.

Flat is better than nested.

Sparse is better than dense.

Readability counts.

Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.

Although practicality beats purity.

Errors should never pass silently.

Unless explicitly silenced.

In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.

There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it.

Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.

Now is better than never.

Although never is often better than right now.

If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.

If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.

Namespaces are one honking great idea — let’s do more of those!

I took the liberty of highlighting in pink my favorite ones, and the ones I feel represent python the most (at least for me), since python’s most distinctive feature its simple way of coding and readability, as once Harold Abeson said…

“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.” – Harold Abeson, Structure and interpretation of computer programs