In computer programming, a function (also procedure, method, subroutine, routine, or subprogram) is a callable unit of software logic that has a well-defined interface and behavior and can be invoked multiple times.

Callable units provide a powerful programming tool. The primary purpose is to allow for the decomposition of a large and/or complicated problem into chunks that have relatively low cognitive load and to assign the chunks meaningful names (unless they are anonymous). Judicious application can reduce the cost of developing and maintaining software, while increasing its quality and reliability.

Callable units are present at multiple levels of abstraction in the programming environment. For example, a programmer may write a function in source code that is compiled to machine code that implements similar semantics. There is a callable unit in the source code and an associated one in the machine code, but they are different kinds of callable units – with different implications and features.

Some programming languages, such as COBOL and BASIC, make a distinction between functions that return a value (typically called "functions") and those that do not (typically called "subprogram", "subroutine", or "procedure"); some, such as C, C++, and Rust, only use the term "function" irrespective of whether they return a value or not; others, such as ALGOL 60 and PL/I, only use the word procedure. Some object-oriented languages, such as Java and C#, refer to functions inside classes as "methods".

The idea of a callable unit was initially conceived by John Mauchly and Kathleen Antonelli during their work on ENIAC and recorded in a January 1947 Harvard symposium on "Preparation of Problems for EDVAC-type Machines." Maurice Wilkes, David Wheeler, and Stanley Gill are generally credited with the formal invention of this concept, which they termed a closed sub-routine, contrasted with an open subroutine or macro. However, Alan Turing had discussed subroutines in a paper of 1945 on design proposals for the NPL ACE, going so far as to invent the concept of a return address stack.

The idea of a subroutine was worked out after computing machines had already existed for some time. The arithmetic and conditional jump instructions were planned ahead of time and have changed relatively little, but the special instructions used for procedure calls have changed greatly over the years. The earliest computers, such as the Manchester Baby, and some early microprocessors, such as the RCA 1802, did not have a single subroutine call instruction. Subroutines could be implemented, but they required programmers to use the call sequence—a series of instructions—at each call site.

A single subroutine was implemented in 1945 in Konrad Zuse's Z4 in the form of a tape.

In 1945, Alan Turing used the terms "bury" and "unbury" as a means of calling and returning from subroutines.