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14. *args and **kwargs in Python
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14. In a function, what is the meaning of *args and **kwargs?
In Python, *args and **kwargs are used in function definitions to allow the function to accept a variable number of arguments.
🔹 *args → Positional Arguments
- Collects any extra positional arguments passed to the function.
- Inside the function,
argsis a tuple.
✅ Example:
def greet(*args):
for name in args:
print(f"Hello, {name}!")
greet("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie")
# Output:
# Hello, Alice!
# Hello, Bob!
# Hello, Charlie!
🔸 **kwargs → Keyword Arguments
- Collects any extra keyword arguments.
- Inside the function,
kwargsis a dictionary.
✅ Example:
def print_info(**kwargs):
for key, value in kwargs.items():
print(f"{key}: {value}")
print_info(name="Alice", age=30, city="Berlin")
# Output:
# name: Alice
# age: 30
# city: Berlin
🧩 You Can Combine Them:
def show_all(a, *args, **kwargs):
print("a:", a)
print("args:", args)
print("kwargs:", kwargs)
show_all(1, 2, 3, x=10, y=20)
# Output:
# a: 1
# args: (2, 3)
# kwargs: {'x': 10, 'y': 20}
✅ Summary Table:
| Syntax | Type | Collected As | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
*args | Positional | tuple | Variable number of positional arguments |
**kwargs | Keyword | dict | Variable number of keyword arguments |