Python : **Kwargs | Functions that accept Variable length Key Value pair as Arguments

In this post, we’ll look at how to write Python functions that accept variable-length arguments in key-value pair format.

Functions that accept Variable length Key Value pair as Arguments

Kwargs
Variable Length Functions
Writing Function which accepts variable length arguments in key value pair using **kwargs

1)Kwargs

In Python function definitions, the special syntax **kwargs is used to transfer a keyworded, variable-length argument set. We call ourselves kwargs with a double star. The explanation for this is that the double star helps one to push keyword arguments through (and any number of them).

A keyword statement is to give the variable a name before entering it.
You can think of the kwargs as a dictionary mapping every keyword to the value we pass. This is why there appears to be no order in which we are iterating through the kwargs.

2)Variable Length Functions

Assume we want to define a function that prints the given student information. Details will be presented in key value pairs, with key representing the property name and value representing the property’s value.
It should print all of the given properties, regardless of their count.

printDetails(name = "Vishal")

Above one should only print one property, namely the name.

printDetails(name = "Vishal", pincode = "983992")

Above one should print two properties , namely the name and pincode

printDetails(name = "Vishal", phone = "333444",address = "NewYork")

Above one should print three properties, namely the name , pincode and address.

It is important that the function accepts variable length arguments in key value pair format.

3)Writing Function which accepts variable length arguments in key value pair using **kwargs

In Python, we must add ** before the parameter name if we want to allow multiple key value pair arguments in a single parameter.
**kwargs can accept multiple key value pair arguments and store them in a dictionary, indicating that kwargs are of the dictionary type.
Let’s make the function with **kwargs now.

Below is the implementation:

def printDetails(**kwargs):
    # Variable-length arguments in key-value pair format are accepted.
    print("Printing all the arguments", kwargs)
    print("Traverse the arguments")
    for key, value in kwargs.items():
        print("person's ", key, " = ", value)
    print()


# passing key's and values to printDetails function
# passing one argument
printDetails(name="Vishal")
# passing two arguments
printDetails(name="Akash", pincode=533333)
# passing three arguments
printDetails(name="Vikram", pincode=213442, adress="NewYork")

Output:

Printing all the arguments {'name': 'Vishal'}
Traverse the arguments
person's  name  =  Vishal

Printing all the arguments {'name': 'Akash', 'pincode': 533333}
Traverse the arguments
person's  name  =  Akash
person's  pincode  =  533333

Printing all the arguments {'name': 'Vikram', 'pincode': 213442, 'adress': 'NewYork'}
Traverse the arguments
person's  name  =  Vikram
person's  pincode  =  213442
person's  adress  =  NewYork

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