What do *args and **kwargs mean?

By: Rajesh P.S.

In Python, *args and **kwargs are special syntax used in function definitions to handle a varying number of positional and keyword arguments, respectively. They provide flexibility when defining functions that can accept a variable number of arguments without having to explicitly specify them in the function signature.

Here's how *args and **kwargs work with examples:

*Using args (Arbitrary Positional Arguments)

The *args syntax allows a function to accept an arbitrary number of positional arguments. These arguments are packed into a tuple and can be accessed using index notation.

def add(*args): total = 0 for num in args: total += num return total print(add(2, 3, 5)) # Output: 10

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**Using kwargs (Arbitrary Keyword Arguments)

The **kwargs syntax allows a function to accept an arbitrary number of keyword arguments. These arguments are packed into a dictionary where the keys are the argument names and the values are their corresponding values.

def print_kwargs(**kwargs): for key, value in kwargs.items(): print(f"{key}: {value}") print_kwargs(name="Alice", age=25, city="New York") # Output: # name: Alice # age: 25 # city: New York

**Combining *args and kwargs

You can use both *args and **kwargs in the same function definition. However, *args must appear before **kwargs.

def mixed_args(arg1, *args, **kwargs): print("First argument:", arg1) print("Additional positional arguments:", args) print("Keyword arguments:", kwargs) mixed_args("Hello", 1, 2, 3, name="Alice", age=25) # Output: # First argument: Hello # Additional positional arguments: (1, 2, 3) # Keyword arguments: {'name': 'Alice', 'age': 25}

Conclusion

The *args and **kwargs allow you to create more flexible and versatile functions that can handle different numbers of arguments. *args collects positional arguments into a tuple, while **kwargs collects keyword arguments into a dictionary. Using these special syntaxes makes your functions more adaptable to various use cases.

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