The print () function
As we said before, a function may have:
- an effect
- a result
There's also a third, very important, function component - the argument(s).
Mathematical functions usually take one argument, e.g., sin(x) takes an x, which is the measure of an angle.
Python functions, on the other hand, are more versatile. Depending on the individual needs, they may accept any number of arguments - as many as necessary to perform their tasks. Note: any number includes - zero -some Python functions don't need any argument
print("Hello, World!")
In spite of the number of needed/provided arguments, Python functions strongly demand the presence of a pair of parentheses - opening and closing ones respectively.
If you want to deliver one of more arguments to a function, you place them inside the parentheses. If you're going to use a function which doesn't take any argument, you still have to have the parentheses.
Note: to distinguish ordinary words from function names, place a pair of empty parentheses after their names, even if corresponding function wants one or more arguments. This is a standard convention.
The function we're talking about here is print()
Does the print() function in our example have any arguments?
Of course it does, but what are they?
The print() function
The only argument delivered to the print() function in this example is a string:
print("Hello, World!")
As you can see, the string is delimited with quotes - in fact, the quotes make the string - they cut out a part of the code and assign a different meaning to it.
You can imagine that the quotes say something like: the text between us is not code It isn't intended to be executed, and you should take it as is.
Almost anything you put inside the quotes will be take literally, not as code but as data. Try to play with this particular string, - modify it, enter some new content, delete some of the existing content.
There's more than one way to specify a string inside Python's code, but for now, though, this one is enough.
So far, you have learned about two important parts of the code: the function and the string. We've talked about them in terms of syntax, but now it's time to discuss them in terms of semantics.
