Python

This page helps with python and general programming tips you may not know:

'*' and '**' Operators

The single star * unpacks the sequence/collection into positional arguments, so you can do this:

def sum(a, b):
    return a + b

values = (1, 2)

s = sum(*values)

This will unpack the tuple so that it actually executes as:

s = sum(1, 2)

The double star ** does the same, only using a dictionary and thus named arguments:

values = { 'a': 1, 'b': 2 }
s = sum(**values)

You can also combine:

def sum(a, b, c, d):
    return a + b + c + d

values1 = (1, 2)
values2 = { 'c': 10, 'd': 15 }
s = sum(*values1, **values2)

will execute as:

Additionally you can define functions to take *x and **y arguments, this allows a function to accept any number of positional and/or named arguments that aren't specifically named in the declaration.

Example:

or with **:

this can allow you to specify a large number of optional parameters without having to declare them.

And again, you can combine:

Yield and Generators

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