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Mastering the Art of Programming in Python 3

First-Class Functions

Functions and nested-functions in Python.

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Function: A first-class object

A first-class object is an object that can be:

  • Created at runtime (assigned to a variable)
  • Stored in a data structure
  • Passed as an argument to another function
  • Returned as a value from another function

Several data types in Python are first-class objects, e.g. int, string, etc. But that’s not it. Functions in Python are also first-class objects. Without any further ado, let us run a program demonstrating the nature of functions as first-class objects.

Python 3.10.4
def hello(): 
    return 'Welcome to Educative'
message = hello # Assigning function as an object
print(message())
l = ['hi', message, 'bye']  # Storing function in list
print(l)
# Returning function from another function
def greeting():  
    return message()
print(greeting())    # Passing function in built-in function

In the above code, in the beginning, we make ...