python kwargs

satya - 3/3/2024, 2:49:41 PM

Two purposes for kwargs in python

Unpacking dictionaries
Accepting arbitrary keyword arguments

satya - 3/3/2024, 2:51:10 PM

Unpacking dictionaries


def greet(first_name, last_name):
    print(f"Hello, {first_name} {last_name}!")


person = {"first_name": "John", "last_name": "Doe"}


# Unpacks the person dictionary 
# into the first_name and last_name arguments

greet(**person)

satya - 3/3/2024, 2:53:41 PM

A function that takes an arbitrary number of key value arguments


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

# Can accept any number of keyword arguments
print_info(name="John Doe", age=30, country="USA")

satya - 3/3/2024, 2:56:07 PM

You can call the function this way too

info = {"name": "John Doe", "age": 30, "country": "USA"} # Pass the dictionary as individual key/value pairs using ** print_info(**info)

satya - 3/3/2024, 2:58:50 PM

In summary

You can define a function that takes multiple key/value args: f(**kwargs)

You can call such a function with multiple key value pairs explicitly

Or you can define a dictionary and pass the dictionary with a (**dictionary_var) syntax

Inside the function these arguments will be known as kwargs if you defined them as **kwargs

The name kwargs is arbitrary