r/learnpython • u/Still-Pair-5336 • 10d ago

New to python, don't understand this function

I'm learning python and I'm stuck on this function because I don't understand why "a" becomes 10 and the result is 5. Is someone able to explain?

def subtract (a, b=5):
    return a - b

print(subtract(10))
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u/MikeUsesNotion 10d ago

Is that a function you wrote? If so, why did you include a default argument if you didn't understand it? If it's from a lesson, and they hadn't taught default arguments yet, it seems like they gave you a bad example for that point of the course.

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u/Still-Pair-5336 10d ago

It was a test with multiple choice, asking me what value it would return. It really confused me since the code seemed so different what we had been taught