Procedures and functionsWriting a procedure

Writing a procedure is extremely simple. Every procedure needs:

• a name
• the program code to perform the task

Writing a procedure in Python

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)

To create a procedure, first give the procedure a name. A good name for the player information procedure could be ‘update_display’. Python uses the statement def to name a procedure. Note the brackets at the end of the procedure’s name:

def update_display():

The procedure code is then written indented beneath the def statement:

def update_display(): 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)