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Function Example
There are many features to use with functions in Python from docstrings to type annotation to naming conventions. This is my version of a best practice function in Python.
This function uses numpydoc docstring format and typing hinting.
Create Function
# Define a function called word_count that takes in a argument
# called document is a string and outputs an integer.
def word_count(document: str) -> int:
"""Counts the number of words in a string.
The purpose of this function is to count the number of words
(as defined by separation by spaces) in any string.
Parameters
----------
document : str
A string representing a single document.
Returns
-------
words : int
The number of words in `document`
Raises
------
ValueError
If `words` contains zero words, an error is raised to help the user.
"""
# Split document by spaces and count the number of elements
# in that list
words = len(document.split())
# If there are zero words,
if words == 0:
# raise an error
raise ValueError('`words` must contain at least one word')
# Return word count
return words
Run Function
# Create a string
hemingway_quote = "But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated."
# Run word_count function
word_count(hemingway_quote)
15