At a very high level, programming allows us to automate tasks. There are two main components involved in most tasks or procedures that we want to perform:
actions or behavior that we want to execute, and
data storage or manipulation
We are going to be working with Python, which is a “procedural” programming language, where instructions are given sequentially and Python executes the instructions in the order they are given. We can group instructions into a unit called a function. We give the function a name, which allows us to use the entire set of instructions by providing the function name. We are effectively adding new operations to Python when we define functions. Python interprets the code that we write, keeping track of data by storing it in the computer’s memory.
Next: Function invocation