Why does the assignment operation print?

Question

I have the following code:

def some_func():
print("Hi!")

var = some_func()

When I run this code I get the following output:

Hi!

I don't understand why "Hi!" gets printed. I don't run the function, I only assign it to the variable. Could someone please explain?

Answer 1

Try to assign only function name

var = some_func # note there's no ()

Later on you can use <var> as you would some_func function.

var() # calls some_func function

The () after function name means to invoke the function. It is not needed to assign a function for a variable.

Answer 2

Aha, so the () part means the function call. Thanks everyone for your replies.

Answer 3

Before you assign the value, the function has to be executed.

For example a function:
def func(i):
i += 50
return i

x = func(30)

func(30) should execute 30+50 before assign it to x.