Python argparse : How can I get Namespace objects for argument groups separately?

Question

I have some command line arguments categorized in groups as follows:

cmdParser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
cmdParser.add_argument(\'mainArg\')

groupOne = cm         


        

Answer 1

I was looking for a solution for this for a very long time,
And I think I finally got it.
So I will just put it here...

from argparse import ArgumentParser

def _parse_args():
    parser = ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument('-1', '--flag-1', action='store_true', default=False)
    parser.add_argument('-2', '--flag-2', action='store_true', default=False)
    parser.add_argument('-3', '--flag-3', action='store_true', default=False)

    args, unknown = parser.parse_known_args()
    print(f"args        : {args}")
    print(f"unknown     : {unknown}")

    hidden = ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
    hidden.add_argument('-d', '--debug', action='store_true', default=False)
    hidden_args = hidden.parse_args(unknown)
    print(f"hidden_args : {hidden_args}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    _parse_args()

as a result:
show help:

ubuntu → playAround $ ./test.py -h
usage: test.py [-h] [-1] [-2] [-3]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help    show this help message and exit
  -1, --flag-1
  -2, --flag-2
  -3, --flag-3

With debug flag:

ubuntu → playAround $ ./test.py -d
args        : Namespace(flag_1=False, flag_2=False, flag_3=False)
unknown     : ['-d']
hidden_args : Namespace(debug=True)

with flags 1 and 2:

ubuntu → playAround $ ./test.py -12
args        : Namespace(flag_1=True, flag_2=True, flag_3=False)
unknown     : []
hidden_args : Namespace(debug=False)

with flags 1 and 2 and debug:

ubuntu → playAround $ ./test.py -12 -d
args        : Namespace(flag_1=True, flag_2=True, flag_3=False)
unknown     : ['-d']
hidden_args : Namespace(debug=True)

The only thing you can't do with this approch is to pass the debug short flag along side to the other short flags:

ubuntu → playAround $ ./test.py -12d
usage: test.py [-h] [-1] [-2] [-3]
test.py: error: argument -2/--flag-2: ignored explicit argument 'd'