Variable arguments to a Python function

[Sean Ross]

import operator
def product(*sequence):
        return reduce(operator.mul, sequence)

>>> product(1,2,3)
6

or, for a more direct interpretation of the perl code

def all_of(*args):
        result = 1
        for i in args:
                result *= i
        return result

>>> all_of(1,2,3)
6

you cannot however do a direct translation, i.e., the following does not
work:

def all_of(*args):
        result = 1
        while args:
                result *= args.pop()
        return result

>>> all_of(1,2,3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
  File "<interactive input>", line 4, in all_of
AttributeError: 'tuple' object has no attribute 'pop'

Because *args is a tuple, and tuples are immutable. But, you can do this (if
you want too)

def all_of(*args):
        args = list(args)
        result = 1
        while args:
                result *= args.pop()
        return result

>>> all_of(1,2,3)
6


"Mahboob" <mahboob at bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:HWfBa.231$zY5.27 at fe02.atl2.webusenet.com...
> How can I pass variable number of arguments to a Python function and
access
> them inside the function?
>
> In Perl, you could write
>
> sub all_of {
>     my $result = 1;
>     while ( @_) {
>         $result *= shift;
>        }
>     return result;
> }
> (From Mastering Algorithms with Perl, pg 569)
> You can compute the product of any number of variables with the above
> function.
>
> Thanks,
> -- Mahboob
>
>
>