/// tip

You'll see what other "things", apart from functions, can be used as dependencies in the next chapter.

///

Whenever a new request arrives, **FastAPI** will take care of:

* Calling your dependency ("dependable") function with the correct parameters.
* Get the result from your function.
* Assign that result to the parameter in your *path operation function*.

```mermaid
graph TB

{* ../../docs_src/encoder/tutorial001_py310.py hl[4,21] *}

In this example, it would convert the Pydantic model to a `dict`, and the `datetime` to a `str`.

The result of calling it is something that can be encoded with the Python standard <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/json.html#json.dumps" class="external-link" target="_blank">`json.dumps()`</a>.

But **FastAPI** will know that it has to solve `query_extractor` first, to pass the results of that to `query_or_cookie_extractor` while calling it.

///

```mermaid
graph TB

query_extractor(["query_extractor"])
query_or_cookie_extractor(["query_or_cookie_extractor"])

read_query["/items/"]

`HTTPException` is a normal Python exception with additional data relevant for APIs.

Because it's a Python exception, you don't `return` it, you `raise` it.

    * PR [#294](https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/pull/294).

## 0.28.0

* Implement dependency cache per request.
    * This avoids calling each dependency multiple times for the same request.
    * This is useful while calling external services, performing costly computation, etc.

class Cat:
    def __init__(self, name: str):
        self.name = name


fluffy = Cat(name="Mr Fluffy")
```

In this case, `fluffy` is an instance of the class `Cat`.

And to create `fluffy`, you are "calling" `Cat`.

So, a Python class is also a **callable**.

Then, in **FastAPI**, you could use a Python class as a dependency.

{!../../docs_src/custom_response/tutorial004.py!}
```

In this example, the function `generate_html_response()` already generates and returns a `Response` instead of returning the HTML in a `str`.

By returning the result of calling `generate_html_response()`, you are already returning a `Response` that will override the default **FastAPI** behavior.

///

## Motivation

Let's start with a simple example:

{* ../../docs_src/python_types/tutorial001.py *}

Calling this program outputs:

```
John Doe
```

The function does the following:

* Takes a `first_name` and `last_name`.
* Converts the first letter of each one to upper case with `title()`.

An example could be that you have an external authentication provider that you need to call.

You send it a token and it returns an authenticated user.

This provider might be charging you per request, and calling it might take some extra time than if you had a fixed mock user for tests.

You probably want to test the external provider once, but not necessarily call it for every test that runs.

////

That command creates a new virtual environment in a directory called `.venv`.

/// details | `.venv` or other name

You could create the virtual environment in a different directory, but there's a convention of calling it `.venv`.

///

## Activate the Virtual Environment

Activate the new virtual environment so that any Python command you run or package you install uses it.

/// tip