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Fred · Feb 25th, 2005, 5:40 PM

The 'def' statement defines a so called function. You define it, and then you can use it with whichever numbers you want.

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def my_abs(num): #num is a placeholder, so you can put in whichever 
    if num < 0:                           number you like
        num = -num
    return num

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if my_abs(a) == my_abs(b):

This simply 'calls' the function. Meaning, that it is applied with the value of 'a', and then with the value of 'b' --> those were assigned to +-23.
my_abs(a) simply replaces every 'num' in the function with a 23, and then returns that value, so it can be compared to the absolute value of 'b', which is determined the same way.
I hope this helped a bit...

Feb 25th, 2005, 5:40 PM	#2
Fred Programmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 67 Rep Power: 4	The 'def' statement defines a so called function. You define it, and then you can use it with whichever numbers you want. (Toggle Plain Text) def my_abs(num): #num is a placeholder, so you can put in whichever if num < 0: number you like num = -num return num def my_abs(num): #num is a placeholder, so you can put in whichever if num < 0: number you like num = -num return num (Toggle Plain Text) if my_abs(a) == my_abs(b): if my_abs(a) == my_abs(b): This simply 'calls' the function. Meaning, that it is applied with the value of 'a', and then with the value of 'b' --> those were assigned to +-23. my_abs(a) simply replaces every 'num' in the function with a 23, and then returns that value, so it can be compared to the absolute value of 'b', which is determined the same way. I hope this helped a bit...