Unpack a list in Python?

Question

I think \'unpack\' might be the wrong vocabulary here - apologies because I\'m sure this is a duplicate question.

My question is pretty simple: in a function that ex

Answer 1

Yes, you can use the *args (splat) syntax:

function_that_needs_strings(*my_list)

where my_list can be any iterable; Python will loop over the given object and use each element as a separate argument to the function.

See the call expression documentation.

There is a keyword-parameter equivalent as well, using two stars:

kwargs = {'foo': 'bar', 'spam': 'ham'}
f(**kwargs)

and there is equivalent syntax for specifying catch-all arguments in a function signature:

def func(*args, **kw):
    # args now holds positional arguments, kw keyword arguments