What is the purpose of the return statement?

Question

What is the simple basic explanation of what the return statement is, how to use it in Python?

And what is the difference between it and the print state

Answer 1

In python, we start defining a function with "def" and generally, but not necessarily, end the function with "return".

A function of variable x is denoted as f(x). What this function does? Suppose, this function adds 2 to x. So, f(x)=x+2

Now, the code of this function will be:

def A_function (x):
    return x + 2

After defining the function, you can use that for any variable and get result. Such as:

print A_function (2)
>>> 4

We could just write the code slightly differently, such as:

def A_function (x):
    y = x + 2
    return y
print A_function (2)

That would also give "4".

Now, we can even use this code:

def A_function (x):
    x = x + 2
    return x
print A_function (2)

That would also give 4. See, that the "x" beside return actually means (x+2), not x of "A_function(x)".

I guess from this simple example, you would understand the meaning of return command.