Functions act as placeholders for the data they output. Basically, you can assign the output of a function to a variable, just like any normal data.The core concept of this lesson is to learn how to call a function and assign the return value to a variable. We can take the return value of a function and assign it to a variable. Assume we have pre-defined a function sum which adds two numbers together. When we have variables and we're assigning it to a value what's the saying is that whenever we have a whatever is on the right of the equal sign. I want to return an integer from a function to my main for further use, specifically it's a an add() function that creates a list from entries in a text file. FreeCodeCamp offers a curriculum and in this video we cover their lesson called Assignment with a Returned Value. Generally, a temporary assignment in a single location is one that is realistically expected to last (and does in fact last) for 1 year or less. Total number of items to return in the command's output.