How to handle ampersand as part a command line argument in python

Question

I have a program in python 2.7 which accepts command line parameters using argparse, however if I try to enter a string containing an ampersand I lose the chara

Answer 1

This is a problem with your shell. Put the argument in quotes.

Answer 2

You can escape the ampersand with a backslash:

$ python args.py -a http://www.website.com?optionone=one\&numbertwo=two