Mastering *args and **kwargs in Python — A Simple Guide

 Mastering *args and **kwargs in Python — A Simple Guide

By Code with AS 

When writing functions in Python, sometimes you don’t know in advance how many arguments you’ll need to handle. That’s where *args and **kwargs come in.

These two features make your functions flexible and powerful. Let’s break them down with examples and clear explanations.

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📌 What is *args?

The *args parameter lets you pass a variable number of positional arguments to a function. All values are collected into a tuple.

✅ Example:

def add(*numbers):
    return sum(numbers)

print(add(1, 4, 5))  # Output: 10

💡 What’s happening?

• The function add accepts any number of arguments: 1, 4, and 5.

• These are stored as a tuple: (1, 4, 5).

• The built-in sum() function adds them all up and returns 10.

This is perfect when you don't know how many numbers a user might input.

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📌 What is **kwargs?

The **kwargs parameter allows you to pass a variable number of keyword arguments — i.e., named arguments. These are collected into a dictionary.

✅ Example:

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

print_info(name="Abcd", age=25)

💡 What’s happening?

• The function print_info accepts keyword arguments like name="Abcd" and age=25.

• These are stored as a dictionary: {'name': 'Abcd', 'age': 25}.

• The for loop goes through each key-value pair and prints it:

  name: Abcd
  age: 25
  

This is incredibly useful when passing configurations, user data, or any labeled values.

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🚀 Why Use *args and **kwargs?

• ✅ Build more flexible functions.

• ✅ Accept optional or unknown numbers of arguments.

• ✅ Avoid rigid function definitions.

• ✅ Write cleaner and more reusable code.

Thank you for reading. 

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