在python中一切皆对象，函数也是如此。

def hi(name="yasoob"):
    return "hi " + name

print(hi())
# output: 'hi yasoob'

# We can even assign a function to a variable like
greet = hi
# We are not using parentheses here because we are not calling the function hi
# instead we are just putting it into the greet variable. Let's try to run this

print(greet())
# output: 'hi yasoob'

# Let's see what happens if we delete the old hi function!
del hi
print(hi())
#outputs: NameError

print(greet())
#outputs: 'hi yasoob'

在Python中我们可以在一个函数中定义另一个函数：

def hi(name="yasoob"):
    print("now you are inside the hi() function")

    def greet():
        return "now you are in the greet() function"

    def welcome():
        return "now you are in the welcome() function"

    print(greet())
    print(welcome())
    print("now you are back in the hi() function")

hi()
#output:now you are inside the hi() function
#       now you are in the greet() function
#       now you are in the welcome() function
#       now you are back in the hi() function

# This shows that whenever you call hi(), greet() and welcome()
# are also called. However the greet() and welcome() functions
# are not available outside the hi() function e.g:

greet()
#outputs: NameError: name 'greet' is not defined

Python中还可以从函数中返回函数：

def hi(name="yasoob"):
    def greet():
        return "now you are in the greet() function"

    def welcome():
        return "now you are in the welcome() function"

    if name == "yasoob":
        return greet
    else:
        return welcome

a = hi()
print(a)
#outputs: 

#This clearly shows that `a` now points to the greet() function in hi()
#Now try this

print(a())
#outputs: now you are in the greet() function

在if/else语句中我们返回greet和welcome，而不是greet()和welcome()。为什么那样？这是因为当你把一对小括号放在后面，这个函数就会执行；然而如果你不放括号在它后面，那它可以被到处传递，并且可以赋值给别的变量而不去执行它。

Python中还可以将函数作为参数传给另一个函数：

def hi():
    return "hi yasoob!"

def doSomethingBeforeHi(func):
    print("I am doing some boring work before executing hi()")
    print(func())

doSomethingBeforeHi(hi)
#outputs:I am doing some boring work before executing hi()
#        hi yasoob!