🔒 How to have an arbitrary amount of arguments and then an optional one in a function?

[icy schooner]

Was trying to write a command that puts anything printed to the console into a log file for later observation (but ended up finding this online anyway)

as shown in my example below, is there any way to have message_to_print defined as any number of arguments given, and for example, log_file to only accept a command if it ends in ".txt"?
i know i could just make every print command use fstrings, but that would involve reformatting like 50 print commands, which i could do, but this answer seems both good to know and is something ive wondered for a bit. i know *args exists but im unsure how to apply it, if thats the answer

def ConsolePrint(message_to_print, log_file='ConsoleOutput.txt'):
    print(message_to_print)
    with open(log_file, 'a') as of:
        of.write('\n' + message_to_print)


ConsolePrint("This is Part 1", "and this is Part 2,", "and this is part 3.", "TestOutput.txt")```
^Currently the `ConsolePrint` command thinks "and this is part 2," is the logfile, and everything else is considered nonsense

[late fiber]

@icy schooner

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[median hill]

I assume you know about *args and **kwargs?

[icy schooner]

i know in the most basic sense

but like i said i am unsure how to apply that knowledge

and i only barely understand that there is a dif, but not what it is

[vocal flame]

put the variable length argument at the end or make the log_file argument a keyword only argument

[quiet bloom]

im pretty sure you could just use the *args

[median hill]

You can also have a bare * in your list of arguments, which just means "all arguments after this must be keyed when you call this function"

[icy schooner]

variable length argument?

[icy schooner]

wouldnt this either require me to enter the logfile every time, rather than have it only be entered if i dont want it to be whatever the default is

[quiet bloom]

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python/variable-length-argument-in-python/

it basically lets you put how many arguments you want inside a function just from one argument

def console_print(*messages, log_file="ConsoleOutput.txt", sep=" ", end="\n"):

console_print("This is Part 1",
              "and this is Part 2,",
              "and this is Part 3.",
              log_file="TestOutput.txt")```

*messages this is basically saying: put as many arguments as you want, which will make messages become a tuple

(not sure if its a tuple or array)

[quiet bloom]

no why? As long as you keep your log_file argument with a default value you dont need to specify it each time

[median hill]

*args packs to a tuple. Python doesn't have built in arrays

[quiet bloom]

ah yeah you're right

[median hill]

You can still have a default value for keyword-only arguments

[median hill]

I recommend staying away from geeksforgeeks and w3schools, to avoid their surplus of misinformation

[median hill]

Can you think of how you'd need to change the def statement to accomplish all this?

[icy schooner]

yeah ive been tryna put this info together mentally to rewrite it

gimme juuust a sec

[icy schooner]

Like this? because anything that isn't a kwarg (that is, defined with name and = before it) is considered a *arg message?

def ConsolePrint(*Message, LogFile="ConsoleOutput.txt")
    print(Message)
    with open(LogFile, 'a') as of:
        of.write('\n' + Message)

ConsolePrint("This is Part 1,", "This is Part 2.") 

ConsolePrint("This is Part A,", "This is Part B.", LogFile="TestConsole.txt")

[median hill]

Yep! That works

[icy schooner]

that is, the first consoleprint would just do it to ConsoleOutput.txt, but the second would do it to TestConsole.txt

pogging

this is good ok cool

like i said, i know i could have just used the original version and done all prints in one big fstring, but i felt this was a good op to learn

and now i think i undastand args and kwargs better yay moment

[quiet bloom]

yeah it always is! Way less boring boilerplate to write

[median hill]

That's the best easy to do it

Best way*

You can technically do everything with a relatively small set of features

[icy schooner]

yeah but whats the point if youre not gonna be a little extra

flex that muscle

convenience. anyway starts breakdancing

how do i close this

!close

[late fiber]

Python help channel closed with !close

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