I'm trying to pass a list of arguments with argparse but the only way that I've found involves rewriting the option for each argument that I want to pass:
What I currently use:
main.py -t arg1 -a arg2
and I would like:
main.py -t arg1 arg2 ...
Here is my code:
parser.add_argument("-t", action='append', dest='table', default=[], help="")
Use nargs:
ArgumentParser objects usually associate a single command-line argument with a single action to be taken. The nargs keyword argument associates a different number of command-line arguments with a single action.
For example, if nargs is set to '+'
Just like
'*', all command-line args present are gathered into a list. Additionally, an error message will be generated if there wasn’t at least one command-line argument present.
So, your code would look like
parser.add_argument('-t', dest='table', help='', nargs='+')
That way -t arguments will be gathered into list automatically (you don't have to explicitly specify the action).
Being aware, you asked for argparse solution, I would like to present alternative solution using package docopt
Install it first:
$ pip install docopt
Write the code:
"""Usage:
main.py -a <arg>...
"""
if __name__ == "__main__":
from docopt import docopt
resargs = docopt(__doc__)
print resargs
Run it to show usage instrucitons:
$ python main.py
Usage:
main.py -a <arg>...
Call it with your parameters:
$ python main.py -a AA BB CC
{'-a': True,
'<arg>': ['AA', 'BB', 'CC']}
Btw. if you do not need the -a option, you shall directly allow passing the arguments. It makes usage simpler to the user.
