Practical Data Wrangling

Functions

A function is a labeled block of code that can be used at any point throughout the program. A function in Python follows the following syntax:

def <nameOfFunction>(<parameters>):    <code block>

Notice the parentheses following the name of the function. Inside the parentheses, it is possible to specify certain variables called parameters or arguments. I will get back to this shortly, but for now, you can ignore the <parameters> bit as it is optional. The following program creates a simple function that will print the words Nice Weather! to the Terminal:

def reactToTheWeather():    print("Nice Weather!")

If you run the previous example, you will notice that nothing in particular happens. This is because the code block of a function is ...