Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
For example, one could define a dictionary having a string "toast" mapped to the integer 42 or vice versa. The keys in a dictionary must be of an immutable Python type, such as an integer or a string, because under the hood they are implemented via a hash function. This makes for much faster lookup times, but requires keys not change.
In computer programming, a function object [a] is a construct allowing an object to be invoked or called as if it were an ordinary function, usually with the same syntax (a function parameter that can also be a function).
Parameters appear in procedure definitions; arguments appear in procedure calls. In the function definition f(x) = x*x the variable x is a parameter; in the function call f(2) the value 2 is the argument of the function. Loosely, a parameter is a type, and an argument is an instance.
There are two types of divisions in Python: floor division (or integer division) // and floating-point / division. [103] Python uses the ** operator for exponentiation. Python uses the + operator for string concatenation. Python uses the * operator for duplicating a string a specified number of times.
A function definition starts with the name of the type of value that it returns or void to indicate that it does not return a value. This is followed by the function name, formal arguments in parentheses, and body lines in braces. In C++, a function declared in a class (as non-static) is called a member function or method.
In object-oriented languages, string functions are often implemented as properties and methods of string objects. In functional and list-based languages a string is represented as a list (of character codes), therefore all list-manipulation procedures could be considered string functions.
A function call using named parameters differs from a regular function call in that the arguments are passed by associating each one with a parameter name, instead of providing an ordered list of arguments. For example, consider this Java or C# method call that doesn't use named parameters:
Eval is understood to be the step of converting a quoted string into a callable function and its arguments, whereas apply is the actual call of the function with a given set of arguments. The distinction is particularly noticeable in functional languages , and languages based on lambda calculus , such as LISP and Scheme .