Python Lesson 13 – Return in Functions

In this tutorial you’ll learn more about functions in Python. In particular, we will focus on the return keywword. This keyword is used to exit a function and return (as the word suggests) a specific value.

 

Return Syntax

Let’s create a basic function to perform an addition. The result of the addition will be our return value (the output).


def addition(x, y):
    result = x + y
    return result

Instead of simply printing the result, in this example, we define it as the output of the function, using return. Now, how can we print the function’s output?


# ... copy the function above

result = addition(3, 4)

print(result) # Output: 7

At line 3, we call our function, passing two numbers (i.e., 3 and 4) to it. The output of the function (i.e., 7) is then stored in the result variable, which is then printed.

The return