How can print statment different from return???

Answer 1

First thing to note is that return and print are statements, not functions, but that is just semantics.

I'll start with a basic explanation. print just shows the human user a string representing what is going on inside the computer. The computer cannot make use of that printing. return is how a function gives back a value. This value is often unseen by the human user, but it can be used by the computer in further functions.

On a more expansive note, print will not in any way affect a function. It is simply there for the human user's benefit. It is very useful for understanding how a program works and can be used in debugging to check various values in a program without interrupting the program.

return is the main way that a function returns a value. All functions will return a value, and if there is no return statement (or yield but don't worry about that yet), it will return None. The value that is returned by a function can then be further used as an argument passed to another function, stored as a variable, or just printed for the benefit of the human user.

Consider these two programs:

def function_that_prints():
print "I printed"

def function_that_returns():
return "I returned" f1 = function_that_prints()
f2 = function_that_returns()
print "Now let us see what the values of f1 and f2 are"
print f1
print f2

Answer 2

ty