Default and keyword arguments

A parameter with a default, def greet(name, greeting="Hello"):, can be left out by the caller. Parameters without defaults must come first. Arguments can be passed by position or by name: greet("Ada", greeting="Hi"). Naming them makes calls readable and lets you skip earlier optional parameters.

Use immutable defaults (strings, numbers, None). A mutable default like [] is created once and shared between calls, a famous surprise; write items=None and create the list inside when it is None.

def repeat(text, times=2, sep=" "):
    return sep.join([text] * times)

print(repeat("ho"))               # ho ho
print(repeat("ho", 3, sep="-"))   # ho-ho-ho

Your task

Write greet(name, greeting="Hello", punctuation="!") returning "<greeting>, <name><punctuation>", and power(base, exponent=2) returning base raised to exponent.

def greet(name, greeting="Hello", punctuation="!"):
    return f"{greeting}, {name}{punctuation}"


def power(base, exponent=2):
    return base ** exponent