Gangmax Blog

What is '*args' and '**kwargs' in Python

From here and here. The code below tells everything.

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def foo(*args, **kwargs):
    print 'args = ', args
    print 'kwargs = ', kwargs
    print '---------------------------------------'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    foo(1,2,3,4)
    foo(a=1,b=2,c=3)
    foo(1,2,3,4, a=1,b=2,c=3)
    foo('a', 1, None, a=1, b='2', c=3)

# The output is:

args =  (1, 2, 3, 4)
kwargs =  {}
---------------------------------------
args =  ()
kwargs =  {'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
---------------------------------------
args =  (1, 2, 3, 4)
kwargs =  {'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': 2}
---------------------------------------
args =  ('a', 1, None)
kwargs =  {'a': 1, 'c': 3, 'b': '2'}
---------------------------------------

Note that:

  1. “*args” is a tuple which presents all the no name arguments;

  2. “**kwargs” is a dict which presents the keyword arguments;

  3. “*args” must show before “**kwargs”.

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