A Short notes on Python Programming

Function Call

The general form of a function call:

function_name(arguments)

The rules for executing a function call:

1.     Evaluate the arguments.

2.     Call the function, passing in the argument values.

Terminology:

• Argument: a value given to a function
• Pass: to provide to a function
• Call: ask Python to evaluate a function
• Return: pass back a value

Example function calls:

>>> abs(-23)

23

>>> abs(56.24)

56.24

Function dir

Python has a set of built-in functions. To see the list of built-in functions, run dir(__builtins__):

>>> dir(__builtins__)< br/> ['ArithmeticError', 'AssertionError', 'AttributeError', 'BaseException', 'BufferError', 'BytesWarning', 'DeprecationWarning', 'EOFError', 'Ellipsis', 'EnvironmentError', 'Exception', 'False', 'FloatingPointError', 'FutureWarning', 'GeneratorExit', 'IOError', 'ImportError', 'ImportWarning', 'IndentationError', 'IndexError', 'KeyError', 'KeyboardInterrupt', 'LookupError', 'MemoryError', 'NameError', 'None', 'NotImplemented', 'NotImplementedError', 'OSError', 'OverflowError', 'PendingDeprecationWarning', 'ReferenceError', 'ResourceWarning', 'RuntimeError', 'RuntimeWarning', 'StopIteration', 'SyntaxError', 'SyntaxWarning', 'SystemError', 'SystemExit', 'TabError', 'True', 'TypeError', 'UnboundLocalError', 'UnicodeDecodeError', 'UnicodeEncodeError', 'UnicodeError', 'UnicodeTranslateError', 'UnicodeWarning', 'UserWarning', 'ValueError', 'Warning', 'ZeroDivisionError', '_', '__build_class__', '__debug__', '__doc__', '__import__', '__name__', '__package__', 'abs', 'all', 'any', 'ascii', 'bin', 'bool', 'bytearray', 'bytes', 'callable', 'chr', 'classmethod', 'compile', 'complex', 'copyright', 'credits', 'delattr', 'dict', 'dir', 'divmod', 'enumerate', 'eval', 'exec', 'exit', 'filter', 'float', 'format', 'frozenset', 'getattr', 'globals', 'hasattr', 'hash', 'help', 'hex', 'id', 'input', 'int', 'isinstance', 'issubclass', 'iter', 'len', 'license', 'list', 'locals', 'map', 'max', 'memoryview', 'min', 'next', 'object', 'oct', 'open', 'ord', 'pow', 'print', 'property', 'quit', 'range', 'repr', 'reversed', 'round', 'set', 'setattr', 'slice', 'sorted', 'staticmethod', 'str', 'sum', 'super', 'tuple', 'type', 'vars', 'zip']

Function help

To get information about a particular function, call help and pass the function as the argument. For example:

>>> help(abs)

Help on built-in function abs in module builtins:

abs(...)

    abs(number) -> number

    Return the absolute value of the argument.

Optional arguments

In the description of function pow below, the square brackets around [, z] indicate that the third argument is optional:

>>> help(pow)

Help on built-in function pow in module builtins:

pow(...)

    pow(x, y[, z]) -> number

    With two arguments, equivalent to x**y.  With three arguments,

    equivalent to (x**y) % z, but may be more efficient (e.g. for longs).

Function pow can be called with either two or three arguments:

>>> pow(2, 5)

32

>>> pow(2, 5, 3)

2