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Python Python Basics Functions and Looping Returning Values

Angelus Miculek
Angelus Miculek
6,556 Points

what does return do?

Not sure I'm getting this straight, but the purpose of the return is so the variable can store it? The variable would be empty if that value wasn't returned? Could someone explain this, thanks.

2 Answers

Travis Alstrand
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Travis Alstrand
Treehouse Project Reviewer

Yes Angelus Miculek , you're on the right track!

In Python (and in many other programming languages), the purpose of the return statement is to send a value back to the part of the program that called the function. If a function doesn't return a value, it doesn't send any output back, and the variable calling it would be empty (or None, which is Python's equivalent of "no value").

Here’s an example:

def add_numbers(a, b):
    return a + b  # Returns the sum of a and b

result = add_numbers(3, 4)  # result will store the value 7
print(result)  # This will print 7

In this case, the function add_numbers returns the result of a + b. The variable result stores this returned value. If there were no return statement, result would not store anything useful:

def add_numbers(a, b):
    a + b  # No return statement

result = add_numbers(3, 4)  # result will be None
print(result)  # This will print None

Without return, the function still performs the operation a + b, but it doesn’t send the result back, so the calling code doesn't have access to it. That's why the return statement is crucial when you want a function to pass a result back to the part of the code that called it.

I hope that helps it make sense πŸ˜ƒ