Chapter 9. Built-In Functions

Terms in This Chapter

  • Built-in (intrinsic) function

  • Bytecode

  • Collection

  • eval statement

  • exec statement

  • Functional programming

  • Hashtable

  • Hash value

  • Hierarchy

  • Identity operator

  • is operator

  • Keyword

  • Lambda function

  • Mutable/Immutable

  • Namespace

  • Name/value pair

  • Octal

  • Parameter

  • Sequence

A good part of the simplicity and elegance of Python comes from its built-in (or instrinsic) functions. Many of these are longhand for other operators—for example, the cmp() function, which performs the ==, =>, =<, <, > operations, and the repr() function, which back-quotes an object. When there's no equivalent operator, the built-in function is often referred to simply as an “operator.”

Generally, Python built-in functions are equivalent to keywords in other ...

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