How to write python script to pass list of item in command prompt?

Question

For example: I am passing list of item as argument in command prompt following format :

  $test run -list1 ["one day", "one hour"] -list2 ["1234"]

after successful pass list1 and list2 output should be:

 list1: 
      type: list
      output format: ["one day", "one hour"]
 list2:
      type: list
      output formate: ["1234"]

why don't you just pass a string and use string.split(',') to get the list? — Jimmy Lin
– Jimmy Lin, Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 10:15
Will the command line always be like that, with 2 lists named -list1 and -list2, or can the number of lists and their names vary? — PM 2Ring
– PM 2Ring, Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 10:17

301_Moved_Permanently · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-04 11:02:49Z

2

You can use the argparse module. The syntax will be a little bit different, though.

In your script, you can use the argparse module the following way:

#!/usr/bin/python
import argparse

if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='My awesome script doing stuff')
    parser.add_argument('--list1', metavar='V1', default=[], nargs='+', help='a string for the first list')
    parser.add_argument('--list2', metavar='V2', default=[], nargs='+', help='a string for the second list')

    arguments = parser.parse_args()
    print(arguments.list1)
    print(arguments.list2)

You can then call your script:

$./run.py --list1 "one day" "one hour" --list2 "1234"

You can use nargs='*' instead of nargs='+' to allow for empty lists such as $./run.py --list1 --list2 "something" "something else" instead of forcing omitting the argument name (as in $./run.py --list2 "1234")

edited Sep 4, 2015 at 11:02

answered Sep 4, 2015 at 10:14

301_Moved_Permanently

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2 Comments

sk1007 Over a year ago

Is it possible to pass argument as following format: $./run.py --list1 ["one day" "one hour"] --list2 [1234, 5678, 9087]

301_Moved_Permanently Over a year ago

You won't be able to do so as easily. To start with, this argument sequence will be seen as ['run.py', '--list1', '[one day', 'one hour]', '--list2', '[1234,', '5678,', '9087]'] in sys.argv. You’ll have to add at least quotes or double quotes around the brackets in the command line. Then you’ll be able to retrieve the strings representing the list that you’ll have to convert using ast.literal_eval

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