arbitrary number of arguments in a function declaration

[it's me]

And in case it's not obvious already, you get the number of arguments that
got passed down from:

    len(args)

"Nick Coghlan" <ncoghlan at iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:mailman.65.1104694009.22381.python-list at python.org...
> rbt wrote:
> > How do I set up a function so that it can take an arbitrary number of
> > arguments? For example, I have a bunch of expenses which may grow or
> > shrink depending on the client's circumstance and a function that sums
> > them up... hard coding them is tedious. How might I make this dynamic so
> > that it can handle any amount of expenses?
> >
> > def tot_expenses(self, e0, e1, e2, e3):
> >     pass
>
> The Python Tutorial is a wonderful thing. . .
>
> Anyway, you can either set up your function to take a proper list, and
then
> discover that the sum function already exists to add up the contents of a
list:
>
> def tot_expenses(self, expenses):
>    self.total_expenses = sum(expenses)
>
> Or, have the function take a variable number of arguments, and do the same
thing:
>
> def tot_expenses(self, *args):
>    self.total_expenses = sum(args)
>
> Cheers,
> Nick.
>
> -- 
> Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at email.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>              http://boredomandlaziness.skystorm.net