Built-in functions

Intermediate Python for Developers

Jasmin Ludolf

Senior Data Science Content Developer

What we'll cover

Chapter 1:
- Built-in functions, modules, and packages

Chapter 2 :
- Custom functions

Chapter 3:
- Error-handling

Introduction to Python for Developers

Functions we know

# Printing
print("Password is accepted!")

Password is accepted!

# Checking data types
type(print)

builtin_function_or_method

# Password attempts
for attempt in range(1, 4):
    print("Attempt", attempt)

Attempt 1
Attempt 2
Attempt 3

Built-in functions

Help build features with less code

Performance monitoring dashboard 🎯

Food delivery app

max() and min()

# List of preparation times (minutes)
preparation_times = [19.23, 15.67, 48.57, 23.45, 12.06, 34.56, 45.67]


# Find the longest preparation time
print(max(preparation_times))

48.57

# Find the shortest preparation time
print(min(preparation_times))

12.06

sum() and round()

# Calculate the total preparation time
print(sum(preparation_times))

199.21

# Store total time
total_time = sum(preparation_times)


# Round to one decimal place
print(round(total_time, 1))

199.2

len()

Counts the number of elements

# Count the number of orders
print(len(preparation_times))

# Calculate average preparation time
print(sum(preparation_times) / len(preparation_times))

28.4585714

len()

Counts the number of characters, including spaces

# Length of a string
print(len("Burger Hub"))

sorted()

# Sort a list in ascending order
print(sorted(preparation_times))

[12.06, 15.67, 19.23, 23.45, 34.56, 
45.67, 48.57]

# Sort a string alphabetically
print(sorted("George"))

['G', 'e', 'e', 'g', 'o', 'r']

Benefits of functions

Perform complex tasks with less code

# Find total preparation time
print(sum(preparation_times))

199.21

Benefits of functions

# Find total preparation time
# Create a variable to increment
time_count = 0


# Loop through preparation times
for time in preparation_times:

    # Add each time to time_count
    time_count += time

    print(time_count)

sum() is reusable, shorter, cleaner, and less prone to errors!

Let's practice!

Intermediate Python for Developers