Unable to retrieve variable assigned in function

Question

I am writing a function where it gets input from the user and sets the variable answer to the answer the user gives. I am printing answer outside of the function, but for some reason, it doesn't print anything.

answer = " "   # set empty in the start
def ask(question):
    answer = input(question) # sets the answer to the user's input
ask("how are you ")
print(answer)  # ends up printing nothing.

Answer 1

You must print answer:

1. inside of ask function, or
2. return answer, catch it and then print it

---

answer = " "   # set empty in the start
def ask(question):
    answer = input(question)
    return answer
    
answer = ask("how are you ")
print(answer)

---

or one line:

print(ask("how are you "))