*args and **kwargs in Python

Sometimes we don't know how many values will be passed to a function. In such cases, Python provides two special symbols:

                    *args → to accept many positional arguments
**kwargs → to accept many keyword (named) arguments

What is `*args`?

*args allows a function to take any number of values (without names). These values are stored as a tuple.

Example: Using *args

def total_marks(*args):
    sum = 0
    for mark in args:
        sum += mark
    print("Total Marks:", sum)

total_marks(70, 80, 90)

Output:

Total Marks: 240

Explanation:

*args collects (70, 80, 90) as a tuple.
The loop adds each value one by one.
Finally, the total is printed.

What is `**kwargs`?

**kwargs allows a function to take any number of named arguments. These arguments are stored in the form of a dictionary.

Example: Using **kwargs

def student_info(**kwargs):
    for key, value in kwargs.items():
        print(key + ":", value)

student_info(name="Vanshu", age=19, course="Python")

Output:

name: Vanshu
age: 19
course: Python

Explanation:

**kwargs collects all arguments as key-value pairs.
These are printed using a loop over the dictionary.

Using both `*args` and `**kwargs` in one function

def show_all(*args, **kwargs):
    print("Values:", args)
    print("Named Info:", kwargs)

show_all(10, 20, name="Simran", subject="Python")

Output:

Values: (10, 20)
Named Info: {'name': 'Simran', 'subject': 'Python'}

Explanation:

*args stores (10, 20) in a tuple.
**kwargs stores {'name': 'Simran', 'subject': 'Python'} as a dictionary.

Summary Table:

Term	Used For	Stored As
`*args`	Multiple values (without names)	Tuple
`**kwargs`	Multiple values (with names)	Dictionary

Key Points to Remember:

*args lets us pass many values without names.
**kwargs lets us pass many values with names.
They make our functions more flexible.
We can use both in the same function, but *args must come before **kwargs.

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