named command line arguments using argparse

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parse_arguments_in_python

Skill - Read named command line inputs with argparse module

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In this post we will understand how to read command line arguments using argparse module

Install argparse module by entering the following in command prompt

pip install argparse

We can take named inputs from command line using argparse module

  • Suppose we want to read a named argument say name, then user should type --name <name>
  • Suppose we want to read multiple named arguments say firstName and lastName, then user should type --firstName <firstName> --lastName <lastName>

If named argument is not provided, then argparse will return None

Example

Create a new file named hello.py with the following code

# import argparse module and get parser
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()

# add argument with flag --name
parser.add_argument('--name', help='Persons name')
args = parser.parse_args()

# read name from arguments
name = args.name

if name!=None:
    print('Hello {0} !!!'.format(name))
else:
    print('name not provided...')

If you run hello.py --name Sudhir then you should see Hello Sudhir !!! in the output

Video

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