Functions

Functions

In Julia, a function is an object that maps a tuple of argument values to a return value. Julia functions are not pure mathematical functions, in the sense that functions can alter and be affected by the global state of the program. The basic syntax for defining functions in Julia is:

julia> function f(x,y)
           x + y
       end
f (generic function with 1 method)

There is a second, more terse syntax for defining a function in Julia. The traditional function declaration syntax demonstrated above is equivalent to the following compact "assignment form":

julia> f(x,y) = x + y
f (generic function with 1 method)

In the assignment form, the body of the function must be a single expression, although it can be a compound expression (see Compound Expressions). Short, simple function definitions are common in Julia. T