The *args
and **kwargs
is a common idiom to allow arbitrary number of arguments to functions as described in the section more on defining functions in the Python documentation.
The *args
will give you all function parameters as a tuple:
def foo(*args):
for a in args:
print(a)
foo(1)
# 1
foo(1,2,3)
# 1
# 2
# 3
The **kwargs
will give you all
keyword arguments except for those corresponding to a formal parameter as a dictionary.
def bar(**kwargs):
for a in kwargs:
print(a, kwargs[a])
bar(name='one', age=27)
# name one
# age 27
Both idioms can be mixed with normal arguments to allow a set of fixed and some variable arguments:
def foo(kind, *args, **kwargs):
pass
It is also possible to use this the other way around:
def foo(a, b, c):
print(a, b, c)
obj = {'b':10, 'c':'lee'}
foo(100,**obj)
# 100 10 lee
Another usage of the *l
idiom is to unpack argument lists when calling a function.
def foo(bar, lee):
print(bar, lee)
l = [1,2]
foo(*l)
# 1 2
In Python 3 it is possible to use *l
on the left side of an assignment (Extended Iterable Unpacking), though it gives a list instead of a tuple in this context:
first, *rest = [1,2,3,4]
first, *l, last = [1,2,3,4]
Also Python 3 adds new semantic (refer PEP 3102):
def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
pass
Such function accepts only 3 positional arguments, and everything after *
can only be passed as keyword arguments.
Note:
- A Python
dict
, semantically used for keyword argument passing, are arbitrarily ordered. However, in Python 3.6, keyword arguments are guaranteed to remember insertion order.
- "The order of elements in
**kwargs
now corresponds to the order in which keyword arguments were passed to the function." - What’s New In Python 3.6
- In fact, all dicts in CPython 3.6 will remember insertion order as an implementation detail, this becomes standard in Python 3.7.
Since 1.8.5 it's possible to seal and freeze the object, so define the above as:
const DaysEnum = Object.freeze({"monday":1, "tuesday":2, "wednesday":3, ...})
or
const DaysEnum = {"monday":1, "tuesday":2, "wednesday":3, ...}
Object.freeze(DaysEnum)
and voila! JS enums.
However, this doesn't prevent you from assigning an undesired value to a variable, which is often the main goal of enums:
let day = DaysEnum.tuesday
day = 298832342 // goes through without any errors
One way to ensure a stronger degree of type safety (with enums or otherwise) is to use a tool like TypeScript or Flow.
Quotes aren't needed but I kept them for consistency.
Best Answer
It's a strictness declaration. Basically, it means that it must be evaluated to what's called "weak head normal form" when the data structure value is created. Let's look at an example, so that we can see just what this means:
The function
f
above, when evaluated, will return a "thunk": that is, the code to execute to figure out its value. At that point, a Foo doesn't even exist yet, just the code.But at some point someone may try to look inside it, probably through a pattern match:
This is going to execute enough code to do what it needs, and no more. So it will create a Foo with four parameters (because you can't look inside it without it existing). The first, since we're testing it, we need to evaluate all the way to
4
, where we realize it doesn't match.The second doesn't need to be evaluated, because we're not testing it. Thus, rather than
6
being stored in that memory location, we'll just store the code for possible later evaluation,(3+3)
. That will turn into a 6 only if someone looks at it.The third parameter, however, has a
!
in front of it, so is strictly evaluated:(4+4)
is executed, and8
is stored in that memory location.The fourth parameter is also strictly evaluated. But here's where it gets a bit tricky: we're evaluating not fully, but only to weak normal head form. This means that we figure out whether it's
Nothing
orJust
something, and store that, but we go no further. That means that we store notJust 10
but actuallyJust (5+5)
, leaving the thunk inside unevaluated. This is important to know, though I think that all the implications of this go rather beyond the scope of this question.You can annotate function arguments in the same way, if you enable the
BangPatterns
language extension:f (1+1) (2+2)
will return the thunk(1+1)*4
.