147

My code

1st file:

data = {'school':'DAV', 'standard': '7', 'name': 'abc', 'city': 'delhi'}
my_function(*data)

2nd file:

my_function(*data):
    schoolname  = school
    cityname = city
    standard = standard
    studentname = name

in the above code, only keys of "data" dictionary were get passed to my_function(), but i want key-value pairs to pass. How to correct this ?

I want the my_function() to get modified like this 

my_function(school='DAV', standard='7', name='abc', city='delhi')

and this is my requirement, give answers according to this

EDIT: dictionary key class is changed to standard

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3
  • 9
    Don't use variable names that are default objects in Python, such as the word class. Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 11:19
  • 3
    ...and this is my requirement, give answers according to this -- Ugh, a bit harsh. But a good question, nonetheless. Commented May 22, 2020 at 15:46
  • 4
    @pfabri, it's quite clear from reading the question that English is not user's native language, so it's very possible that the harshness was unintended and that's just how they translated it to English. Commented Sep 17, 2020 at 6:28

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
269

If you want to use them like that, define the function with the variable names as normal:

def my_function(school, standard, city, name):
    schoolName  = school
    cityName = city
    standardName = standard
    studentName = name

Now you can use ** when you call the function:

data = {'school':'DAV', 'standard': '7', 'name': 'abc', 'city': 'delhi'}

my_function(**data)

and it will work as you want.

P.S. Don't use reserved words such as class.(e.g., use klass instead)

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10 Comments

i have this line def my_function(*data), modify your code according to this line
you mean to recompile whole python interpreter to work like you want it to work?
@markcial is there any way to implement in code as i like ?
@Patrick Not a chance, the only way is the one that RemcoGerlih proposed. He has a working sample of code, yours has failed, then is logical to follow their guidelines
@MayankChoudhary: either first construct a new dictionary with only the selected keys and pass it with **, or just do my_function(mykey1=mydict["mykey1"], ...). There is no automatic way to call a function like that.
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69

*data interprets arguments as tuples, instead you have to pass **data which interprets the arguments as dictionary. 

data = {'school':'DAV', 'class': '7', 'name': 'abc', 'city': 'pune'}


def my_function(**data):
    schoolname  = data['school']
    cityname = data['city']
    standard = data['class']
    studentname = data['name']

You can call the function like this:

my_function(**data)
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Comments

18

You can just pass it

def my_function(my_data):
    my_data["schoolname"] = "something"
    print my_data

or if you really want to

def my_function(**kwargs):
    kwargs["schoolname"] = "something"
    print kwargs
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2 Comments

made my day :-)
There is a fundamental difference between the two. The first passes a reference the second copies the data. If you pass a reference and the dictionary gets changed inside the function it will be changed outside the function as well which can cause very bad side effects.

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