Re: another newbie question: why should you use "*args" ?

On Jan 31, 5:41 am, stef <s.mien...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
why should I use *args,
as in my ignorance,
making use of a list (or tupple) works just as well,
and is more flexible in it's calling.

Others have mentioned the instances in which it's actually useful -
for catch-all arguments. But you also should take into consideration
the aesthetics, since python is supposed to be an aesthetically nice
language.

So the simple conclusion might be: never use "*args",
or am I overlooking something ?

# method 1
def execute (self, *args):
for i in range ( len(args) ):
... do something

# method 2
def chunk_plot(self, list):
for i in range ( len(list) ):
.... do something

It's bad practice to use built-ins like 'list' as a regular variable
name.

# calling method 1:
execute (S[0], S[4] )

# calling method 2:
execute ( ( S[0], S[4] ) )

Let's take a look at those side-by-side:
execute (S[0], S[4] )
execute ( ( S[0], S[4] ) )

Now, which one *looks* better?

# or *the extra flexibility)
mylist = ( S[0], S[4] )
execute ( mylist )

Also, take into consideration the opposite end of the pole; you have
your list of arguments (args), and your about to call a function that
was declared something like this:
def someFunction(arg1, arg2, arg3):
# etc.
Which is clearer?
someFunction(*args)
someFunction(args[0], args[1], args[2])

And if you've got a variable number of arguments, it becomes virtually
impossible to avoid using the *args syntax.

And that doesn't even begin to cover the need for **kargs! (which, if
you haven't noticed, is generally used next to *args)

It turns out that it's not really necessary in a static-typed language
like java (although java 5.0 introduced it); it's the dynamic nature
of python that makes these syntactic sugars necessary. And without
them, function calls can get really ugly.

thanks,
Stef Mientki

.

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