Positional arguments in python examples

Positional arguments in python examples

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What are Positional Arguments?

In Python, when you define a function or a method, you can pass arguments to it. These arguments are used within the function or method to perform specific operations. There are two types of arguments: positional and keyword arguments.

Positional arguments are the values passed to a function in the order they are defined. In other words, when you call a function with multiple arguments, Python matches the arguments by their position (i.e., first argument, second argument, third argument, etc.). This is the default behavior when calling a function without using keyword arguments.

Example 1: Simple Positional Arguments

Let's define a simple function that takes three positional arguments:

def greet(name, age, occupation):
print(f"Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old and work as a {occupation}.")

Now, let's call this function with some sample values:

greet("John Doe", 30, "Software Engineer")

Output: Hello, John Doe! You are 30 years old and work as a Software Engineer.

As you can see, Python matches the arguments based on their position. The first argument "John Doe" is matched with the name parameter, the second argument 30 is matched with the age parameter, and the third argument "Software Engineer" is matched with the occupation parameter.

Example 2: Positional Arguments with Default Values

Sometimes, you might want to provide default values for some positional arguments. In Python, you can do this by assigning a value to an argument in its function definition:

def greet(name, age=30, occupation="Software Engineer"):
print(f"Hello, {name}! You are {age} years old and work as a {occupation}.")

Now, let's call this function with just two arguments:

greet("Jane Smith", 25)

Output: Hello, Jane Smith! You are 25 years old and work as a Software Engineer.

Notice that the age argument is not explicitly passed, so Python uses the default value (30) instead. Similarly, since we didn't pass an occupation, it defaults to "Software Engineer".

Example 3: Positional Arguments with Variable Length

What if you want to define a function that can accept a variable number of positional arguments? You can use the *args syntax in your function definition:

def print_names(*names):
for name in names:
print(name)

Now, let's call this function with multiple arguments:

print_names("John", "Jane", "Bob", "Alice")

Output:

John
Jane
Bob
Alice

Python collects all the positional arguments passed to the function and stores them in a tuple (in this case, names). You can then iterate over this tuple to process each argument individually.

Conclusion

Positional arguments are an essential aspect of Python programming. By understanding how they work, you can write more flexible and reusable functions that can handle different input scenarios. Whether you're working with simple or complex function definitions, mastering positional arguments will help you become a more effective Python programmer.

Positional arguments in python geeksforgeeks

Positional Arguments in Python: GeeksforGeeks

In Python programming language, positional arguments are the way to pass values to a function when it is called. The position of the argument in the function definition corresponds to the order of the argument passed while calling the function.

Let's understand this with an example:

def my_function(arg1, arg2):
print(f"arg1: {arg1}, arg2: {arg2}")
my_function(10, 20)

In the above code, arg1 and arg2 are positional arguments. When we call the function with my_function(10, 20), 10 is passed as the value for arg1 and 20 is passed as the value for arg2. This means that when you define your function, the order of the parameters matters.

Here's how positional arguments work:

def my_function(arg1='default', arg2=20):
print(f"arg1: {arg1}, arg2: {arg2}")
my_function(10)  # Output: arg1: default, arg2: 10

In this case, arg1 has a default value of 'default' and when we don't provide it while calling the function (my_function(10)), it automatically takes 'default'.

def my_function(**kwargs):
for key, value in kwargs.items():
print(f"{key}: {value}")
my_function(name='John', age=20)  # Output: name: John, age: 20

Here **kwargs is a dictionary of keyword arguments. We can access the values by using their keys.

def my_function(arg1, arg2='default', **kwargs):
print(f"arg1: {arg1}, arg2: {arg2}")
my_function(10, name='John')  # Output: arg1: 10, arg2: default

In this case, we pass 10 as the value for arg1, 'default' will be taken for arg2, and we use keyword argument name='John'.

Conclusion:

Positional arguments are an essential concept in Python programming. They allow you to pass values to a function when it is called, and they are matched based on their position. You can assign default values to positional arguments, and also use dictionaries for passing keyword arguments. Understanding how to work with positional and keyword arguments will make your Python programming more efficient and effective.