What are *args and **kwargs?

ICSM Computer 853 22 Apr 2025

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Updated 03 Jun 2025

1 Answers

ICSM Computer 03 Jun 2025

Great question! In Python, *args and **kwargs are used in function definitions to allow variable numbers of arguments.

What are `*args`?

*args lets a function accept any number of positional arguments.
Inside the function, args is a tuple of all positional arguments passed beyond the defined ones.

Example:

def greet(*args):
    for name in args:
        print(f"Hello, {name}!")

greet("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie")
# Output:
# Hello, Alice!
# Hello, Bob!
# Hello, Charlie!

What are `**kwargs`?

**kwargs lets a function accept any number of keyword arguments (named arguments).
Inside the function, kwargs is a dictionary of all keyword arguments passed.

Example:

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

print_info(name="Alice", age=30, city="NY")
# Output:
# name: Alice
# age: 30
# city: NY

Using both together:

def example(*args, **kwargs):
    print("Positional:", args)
    print("Keyword:", kwargs)

example(1, 2, 3, name="Alice", job="Engineer")
# Output:
# Positional: (1, 2, 3)
# Keyword: {'name': 'Alice', 'job': 'Engineer'}

Summary

Syntax	Meaning	Inside function type
`*args`	Variable number of positional args	Tuple
`**kwargs`	Variable number of keyword args	Dict

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What are *args and **kwargs?

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1 Answers

What are *args?

Example:

What are **kwargs?

Example:

Using both together:

Summary

What are `*args`?

What are `**kwargs`?