Command Line Arguments in Python

Command line arguments are a way to pass additional information to a Python script when it is run from the command line. These arguments are passed in the form of text after the script name, separated by spaces. For example, if you have a script named “myscript.py” and you want to pass the argument “hello” to it, you would run the script like this:

python myscript.py hello

In the script, you can access these arguments using the sys.argv list. sys.argv is a list of strings that contains the command line arguments passed to the script. The first element of the list (sys.argv[0]) is the name of the script itself, and the following elements are the arguments passed to the script.

Here is an example of a simple script that prints the command line arguments passed to it:

import sys
print("Script name:", sys.argv[0])
for i, arg in enumerate(sys.argv[1:]):
    print(f"Argument {i + 1}: {arg}

When you run the script with the command python myscript.py hello world, it will produce the following output:

Script name: myscript.pyArgument 1: helloArgument 2: world

You can also use other libraries like argparse,getopt,click to parse the command line arguments and make it easier to use and also make it more readable.

In conclusion, command line arguments allow you to pass additional information to a Python script when it is run from the command line. These arguments are accessed using the sys.argv list, and can be parsed using libraries like argparse,getopt,click to make it more readable and easier to use.

FAQ

Q1 What are command line arguments in Python?

Command line arguments are a way to pass additional information to a Python script when it is run from the command line. These arguments are passed in the form of text after the script name, separated by spaces.

Q2 How can I access command line arguments in Python?

In Python, you can access command line arguments using the sys.argv list. The first element of the list (sys.argv[0]) is the name of the script itself, and the following elements are the arguments passed to the script.

Q3 Are there any libraries available to parse command line arguments in Python?

Yes, there are libraries like argparse,getopt,click, which can be used to parse command line arguments and make it easier to use and also make it more readable.