Python Functions

Variable Length Arguments in Python

Python offers flexibility in defining functions that can accept a variable number of arguments. This is achieved using two special syntaxes: *args and **kwargs.

• *args: This allows a function to accept a variable number of positional arguments. These arguments are collected into a tuple.

def my_sum(*args):
  total = 0
  for num in args:
    total += num
  return total

print(my_sum(1, 2, 3))  # Output: 6
print(my_sum(10, 20, 30, 40)) # Output: 100
print(my_sum()) # Output: 0

• **kwargs: This allows a function to accept a variable number of keyword arguments. These arguments are collected into a dictionary.

def print_details(**kwargs):
  for key, value in kwargs.items():
    print(f"{key}: {value}")

print_details(name="Alice", age=30, city="[New York](./../new-york/)")

Output:

name: Alice
age: 30
city: [New York](./../new-york/) ```

You can combine `*args` and `**kwargs` in a single function definition:

```python
def combined_example(*args, **kwargs):
  print("Positional arguments:", args)
  print("Keyword arguments:", kwargs)

combined_example(1, 2, 3, name="Bob", age=25)

Output:

Positional arguments: (1, 2, 3)
Keyword arguments: {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 25}

Important Considerations:

• The order matters: *args must come before **kwargs in the function definition.
• args and kwargs are just conventions; you can use other names (e.g., *numbers, **params), but sticking to the convention improves readability.

Tuple Unpacking Dictionary Manipulation Function Definitions