Passing an array list into a Python function

Question

I ve  been looking at passing arrays  or lists  as Python tends to call them  into a function   I read something about using  args  such as   def someFunc  args      for x in args         print x   But not sure if this is right wrong  Nothing seems to work as I want  I m used to be able to pass arrays into PHP function with ease and this is confusing me  It also seems I can t do this   def someFunc  args  someString    As it throws up an error   I think I ve just got myself completely confused and looking for someone to clear it up for me

User · Answer

You don t need to use the asterisk to accept a list   Simply give the argument a name in the definition  and pass in a list like  def takes list a list       for item in a list           print item

User · Answer

When you define your function using this syntax   def someFunc  args       for x in args         print x   You re telling it that you expect a variable number of arguments   If you want to pass in a List  Array from other languages  you d do something like this   def someFunc myList        args       for x in myList          print x   Then you can call it with this   items    1 2 3 4 5   someFunc items    You need to define named arguments before variable arguments  and variable arguments before keyword arguments   You can also have this   def someFunc arg1  arg2  arg3   args    kwargs       for x in args         print x   Which requires at least three arguments  and supports variable numbers of other arguments and keyword arguments

User · Answer

Python lists  which are not just arrays because their size can be changed on the fly  are normal Python objects and can be passed in to functions as any variable  The   syntax is used for unpacking lists  which is probably not something you want to do now

User · Answer

You can pass lists just like other types   l    1 2 3   def stuff a      for x in a        print a   stuff l    This prints the list l  Keep in mind lists are passed as references not as a deep copy

User · Answer

def sumlist items          sum   0     for i in items          sum    i      return sum  t sumlist  2 4 8 1   print t

[python] Passing an array/list into a Python function

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