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. |