Procedures and functionsProcedures in Python

Procedures can make code shorter, simpler and easier to write.

Consider this excerpt from a Python game program which prints player information on the screen:

print("Your score: " + str(score))
time.sleep(1)
print("High score: " + str(high_score))
time.sleep(1)
print("Lives remaining: " + str(lives))
time.sleep(1)

The program uses six lines of code to print out the player information.

Suppose you wanted to print out the player information at these different points in the game:

• at the end of a level
• when the player loses a life
• when the player beats the high score
• when the game is over

You would need to repeat those six lines of code on each occasion, giving a total of 24 lines of code simply to display the player information:

# End of level
print("Your score: " + str(score))
time.sleep(1)
print("High score: " + str(high_score))
time.sleep(1)
print("Lives remaining: " + str(lives))
time.sleep(1) # Lose a life
print("Your score: " + str(score))
time.sleep(1)
print("High score: " + str(high_score))
time.sleep(1)
print("Lives remaining: " + str(lives))
time.sleep(1) # New high score
print("Your score: " + str(score))
time.sleep(1)
print("High score: " + str(high_score))
time.sleep(1)
print("Lives remaining: " + str(lives))
time.sleep(1) # Game over
print("Your score: " + str(score))
time.sleep(1)
print("High score: " + str(high_score))
time.sleep(1)
print("Lives remaining: " + str(lives))
time.sleep(1)

This is repetitive and a waste of time. It would be better to write a procedure and simply run that procedure whenever it is needed.