Keyword Arguments vs. Positional Arguments: What's the Difference?

Keyword Arguments vs. Positional Arguments: Uncovering the Differences

The distinction between keyword arguments and positional arguments in programming warrants exploration. While positional arguments require specific positions in function calls, keyword arguments bestow the flexibility of specifying argument values by their respective names.

Keyword Arguments in Function Calls

In function calls, keyword arguments enable users to assign values to parameters by name. This feature comes in handy when dealing with many arguments or when the order of arguments is less critical. The syntax for keyword arguments in Python is as follows:

function_name(argument_name1=argument_value1, argument_name2=argument_value2, ...)

It's important to note that keyword arguments must follow positional arguments, and parameters without explicit argument values must have default values.

Pure Keyword Arguments on the Function Definition Side

Beyond their role in function calls, keyword arguments also play a part in function definitions. Functions can be defined to receive arguments by name without specifying their exact names. This type of argument is known as a pure keyword argument. The syntax for pure keyword arguments in Python is:

def function_name(parameter1, parameter2, **kwargs)

Any keyword arguments passed to a function with pure keyword arguments will be stored in a dictionary named kwargs, accessible during function execution. This provides a convenient way to handle an arbitrary number of input arguments.

Example:

Here's an example demonstrating the usage of pure keyword arguments:

def my_function(**kwargs):
    print(str(kwargs))

my_function(a=12, b="abc")

# Output: {'a': 12, 'b': 'abc'}

In this example, the my_function is defined to receive any number of keyword arguments and stores them in the kwargs dictionary. The code then prints the contents of kwargs.

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