title: What is the return function used for?
body: <p>I've used the return function in my code before as I am learning python, but I'm not sure what it does. I've looked it up, but I'm not really sure what it actually does. Can anyone help?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <p>(For Ex.)</p>
  
  <pre><code>def break_words(stuff):
      words = stuff.split(' ')
      return words
  
  def sort_words(words):
      return sorted(words)
  
  def print_first_word(words):
      word = words.pop(0)
      print(word)
  
  def print_last_word(words):
      word = words.pop(-1)
      print(word)
  
  def sort_sentence(sentence):
      words = break_words(sentence)
      return sort_words(words)
  
  def print_first_and_last(sentence):
      words = break_words(sentence)
      print_first_word(words)
      print_last_word(words)
  
  def print_first_and_last_sorted(sentence):
      words = sort_sentence(sentence)
      print_first_word(words)
      print_last_word(words)
  </code></pre>