5.5. Built-in Functions

Python comes shipped with some predefined useful functions that we can use throughout our code. We've already seen some built-in functions like print(), input() and range(). This section some of the other useful ones.

abs()

Returns the absolute value of a number.

In a nutshell, this converts a negative value to positive. For example, abs(-2.5) returns 2.5.

divmod()

Returns the quotient and remainder of a division operation.

CodeOutput

q, r = divmod(5, 2)
print(q)
print(r)

2.5
1

round()

Rounds a number.

For example, round(5.2) returns 5 and round(5.6) returns 6.

This also takes a second parameter representing the decimals to round to. For example, round(5.2793, 2) returns 5.23.

len()

Returns the length of a string or a sequence.

For example, len('hello john') returns 10.

ascii()

Returns the ASCII code for a character.

For example, ascii('B') returns 66.

chr()

Returns the character that maps to given ASCII code.

For example, chr(66) returns 'B'.

There are many other builtin functions that can be used in many tasks but all of them cannot be listed here. See Python documentation for all functions.