Question

What are the pieces of data that are passed into a function called?

Short answer

Answer: Parameters are pieces of data or input values passed into a function, allowing the function to perform tasks or calculations based on the given values. They are important because they generalize the function and make it more versatile by allowing users to pass different input values, giving the function more flexibility to process these inputs and produce an output depending on its implementation.

Step-by-step solution

Definition

The pieces of data that are passed into a function are called parameters (or sometimes arguments). These are values that are provided as input to the function so that the function can perform a specific task or calculation based on the given values.

Purpose of Parameters

Parameters are used to generalize the function and make it more versatile. Instead of hardcoding values within the function, parameters allow the user to pass different values as input, which gives the function more flexibility. The function can then process these input values and produce an output depending on its implementation.

Declaring Parameters in a Function

In most programming languages, parameters are declared within the parentheses following the function name when the function is defined. For example, in Python, the function `add_numbers` with two parameters `a` and `b` would be defined as follows: ```python def add_numbers(a, b): return a + b ```

Calling a Function with Parameters

When calling a function with parameters, you pass the arguments in the same order as they are declared in the function definition. For instance, if you want to call the `add_numbers` function with the numbers 3 and 5, you would do this: ```python result = add_numbers(3, 5) ``` In this case, `3` and `5` are the arguments passed as parameters `a` and `b`, respectively, to the function.