Difference between Function and Procedure

Procedure: In computer programming a specific set of instructions together called a procedure. Depending on the programming language it can be called as subroutine, subprogram or a function.

Function: It is one of the basic concept in programming of computer. As it name says, it performs a function (work). It can be either user defined or system defined. More technically it is a block of code in program which performs specific task.

Difference between Function and Procedure

Procedure Function
It is set of instructions in a program. It also a set of instructions, but we can say it’s a variant of a procedure.
May or may not return a value to the code called by. It just executes commands. Functions are very similar to procedures except that they also return a value to the calling sub program.
Procedure can contain return statement. Function should contain return statement.
Procedure is set of commands executed in order Function is used to calculate something from given input to it. So its name came from math.
Procedure cannot be called from a function. Function can be called from a procedure.
In SQL, inside procedure we can use DML (Insert, Delete, Update) Commands. In SQL, inside functions we can’t use DML commands.
Pascal, Ada, PL/SQL are some programming languages which uses procedure. C, C++, Java are some programming languages which uses functions.

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