What does the star operator mean, in a function call?

Question

What does the * operator mean in Python, such as in code like zip(*x) or f(**k)?

1. How is it handled internally in the int

Answer 1

One small point: these are not operators. Operators are used in expressions to create new values from existing values (1+2 becomes 3, for example. The * and ** here are part of the syntax of function declarations and calls.