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Python

Posted by Anthony Lopez
Anthony Lopez
963 Points

What is the difference between return and result?

For example:

def yell(text): text = text.upper() number_of_characters = len(text) result = text + "!" * (number_of_characters // 4) print(result)

def split_check(total, number_of_people): cost_per_person = int(total / number_of_people) return cost_per_person

They are both calculating. Also in the bottom function did you even need to use return? Could you have just put print(cost_per_person) and gotten the same thing?

1 Answer

John Lack-Wilson
John Lack-Wilson
8,181 Points
John Lack-Wilson
John Lack-Wilson
8,181 Points

Someone may have a more in-depth and complex answer than this but I hope my answer to be concise.

return allows you to use data over and over again. Whereas print simply displays the data.

Here's a simple example:

def multiply(num1, num2):
    print(num1 * num2)

def multiply(num1, num2):
    return num1 * num2

The first function will simply display the value of one number multiplied by another.

The second function allows us to use the result of the multiplication in further calculations. For instance we could do something quite complex such as this

multiply ( multiply (3,4), multiply ( multiply (6,7), 8) )

The above would not be possible using the print function.