What is the purpose and use of **kwargs?
keyword-argument, python
Solution
You can use `**kwargs` to let your functions take an arbitrary number of keyword arguments ("kwargs" means "keyword arguments"):
>>> def print_keyword_args(**kwargs):
... # kwargs is a dict of the keyword args passed to the function
... for key, value in kwargs.iteritems():
... print "%s = %s" % (key, value)
...
>>> print_keyword_args(first_name="John", last_name="Doe")
first_name = John
last_name = Doe
You can also use the `**kwargs` syntax when calling functions by constructing a dictionary of keyword arguments and passing it to your function:
>>> kwargs = {'first_name': 'Bobby', 'last_name': 'Smith'}
>>> print_keyword_args(**kwargs)
first_name = Bobby
last_name = Smith
The Python Tutorial contains a good explanation of how it works, along with some nice examples.
Python 3 update
For Python 3, instead of `iteritems()`, use `items()`
Problem
What are the uses for `**kwargs` in Python? I know you can do an `objects.filter` on a table and pass in a `**kwargs` argument. Can I also do this for specifying time deltas i.e. `timedelta(hours = time1)`? How exactly does it work? Is it classified as 'unpacking'? Like `a,b=1,2`?