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 <div class="section" id="argparse-tutorial">
<h1>Argparse Tutorial<a class="headerlink" href="#argparse-tutorial" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
<col class="field-name" />
<col class="field-body" />
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">author:</th><td class="field-body">Tshepang Lekhonkhobe</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
This tutorial is intended to be a gentle introduction to <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a>, the
recommended command-line parsing module in the Python standard library.
<div class="admonition note">
Note
There are two other modules that fulfill the same task, namely
<a class="reference internal" href="../library/getopt.html#module-getopt" title="getopt: Portable parser for command line options; support both short and long option names."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">getopt</tt></a> (an equivalent for <tt class="xref c c-func docutils literal">getopt()</tt> from the C
language) and the deprecated <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#module-optparse" title="optparse: Command-line option parsing library. (deprecated)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">optparse</tt></a>.
Note also that <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a> is based on <a class="reference internal" href="../library/optparse.html#module-optparse" title="optparse: Command-line option parsing library. (deprecated)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">optparse</tt></a>,
and therefore very similar in terms of usage.
</div>
<div class="section" id="concepts">
<h2>Concepts<a class="headerlink" href="#concepts" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
Let&#8217;s show the sort of functionality that we are going to explore in this
introductory tutorial by making use of the ls command:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ ls
cpython devguide prog.py pypy rm-unused-function.patch
$ ls pypy
ctypes_configure demo dotviewer include lib_pypy lib-python ...
$ ls -l
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 19 wena wena 4096 Feb 18 18:51 cpython
drwxr-xr-x 4 wena wena 4096 Feb 8 12:04 devguide
-rwxr-xr-x 1 wena wena 535 Feb 19 00:05 prog.py
drwxr-xr-x 14 wena wena 4096 Feb 7 00:59 pypy
-rw-r--r-- 1 wena wena 741 Feb 18 01:01 rm-unused-function.patch
$ ls --help
Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is specified.
...
</pre></div>
</div>
A few concepts we can learn from the four commands:
<ul class="simple">
<li>The ls command is useful when run without any options at all. It defaults
to displaying the contents of the current directory.</li>
<li>If we want beyond what it provides by default, we tell it a bit more. In
this case, we want it to display a different directory, <tt class="docutils literal">pypy</tt>.
What we did is specify what is known as a positional argument. It&#8217;s named so
because the program should know what to do with the value, solely based on
where it appears on the command line. This concept is more relevant
to a command like cp, whose most basic usage is <tt class="docutils literal">cp SRC DEST</tt>.
The first position is what you want copied, and the second
position is where you want it copied to.</li>
<li>Now, say we want to change behaviour of the program. In our example,
we display more info for each file instead of just showing the file names.
The <tt class="docutils literal">-l</tt> in that case is known as an optional argument.</li>
<li>That&#8217;s a snippet of the help text. It&#8217;s very useful in that you can
come across a program you have never used before, and can figure out
how it works simply by reading it&#8217;s help text.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="the-basics">
<h2>The basics<a class="headerlink" href="#the-basics" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
Let us start with a very simple example which does (almost) nothing:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.parse_args()
</pre></div>
</div>
Following is a result of running the code:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py
$ python prog.py --help
usage: prog.py [-h]

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
$ python prog.py --verbose
usage: prog.py [-h]
prog.py: error: unrecognized arguments: --verbose
$ python prog.py foo
usage: prog.py [-h]
prog.py: error: unrecognized arguments: foo
</pre></div>
</div>
Here is what is happening:
<ul class="simple">
<li>Running the script without any options results in nothing displayed to
stdout. Not so useful.</li>
<li>The second one starts to display the usefulness of the <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a>
module. We have done almost nothing, but already we get a nice help message.</li>
<li>The <tt class="docutils literal">--help</tt> option, which can also be shortened to <tt class="docutils literal">-h</tt>, is the only
option we get for free (i.e. no need to specify it). Specifying anything
else results in an error. But even then, we do get a useful usage message,
also for free.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="introducing-positional-arguments">
<h2>Introducing Positional arguments<a class="headerlink" href="#introducing-positional-arguments" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
An example:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;echo&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
print args.echo
</pre></div>
</div>
And running the code:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py
usage: prog.py [-h] echo
prog.py: error: the following arguments are required: echo
$ python prog.py --help
usage: prog.py [-h] echo

positional arguments:
 echo

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
$ python prog.py foo
foo
</pre></div>
</div>
Here is what&#8217;s happening:
<ul class="simple">
<li>We&#8217;ve added the <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal">add_argument()</tt> method, which is what we use to specify
which command-line options the program is willing to accept. In this case,
I&#8217;ve named it <tt class="docutils literal">echo</tt> so that it&#8217;s in line with its function.</li>
<li>Calling our program now requires us to specify an option.</li>
<li>The <tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal">parse_args()</tt> method actually returns some data from the
options specified, in this case, <tt class="docutils literal">echo</tt>.</li>
<li>The variable is some form of &#8216;magic&#8217; that <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a> performs for free
(i.e. no need to specify which variable that value is stored in).
You will also notice that its name matches the string argument given
to the method, <tt class="docutils literal">echo</tt>.</li>
</ul>
Note however that, although the help display looks nice and all, it currently
is not as helpful as it can be. For example we see that we got <tt class="docutils literal">echo</tt> as a
positional argument, but we don&#8217;t know what it does, other than by guessing or
by reading the source code. So, let&#8217;s make it a bit more useful:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;echo&quot;, help=&quot;echo the string you use here&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
print args.echo
</pre></div>
</div>
And we get:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py -h
usage: prog.py [-h] echo

positional arguments:
 echo echo the string you use here

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
</pre></div>
</div>
Now, how about doing something even more useful:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
print args.square**2
</pre></div>
</div>
Following is a result of running the code:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File &quot;prog.py&quot;, line 5, in &lt;module&gt;
 print args.square**2
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for ** or pow(): &#39;str&#39; and &#39;int&#39;
</pre></div>
</div>
That didn&#8217;t go so well. That&#8217;s because <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a> treats the options we
give it as strings, unless we tell it otherwise. So, let&#8217;s tell
<a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a> to treat that input as an integer:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;,
 type=int)
args = parser.parse_args()
print args.square**2
</pre></div>
</div>
Following is a result of running the code:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4
16
$ python prog.py four
usage: prog.py [-h] square
prog.py: error: argument square: invalid int value: &#39;four&#39;
</pre></div>
</div>
That went well. The program now even helpfully quits on bad illegal input
before proceeding.
</div>
<div class="section" id="introducing-optional-arguments">
<h2>Introducing Optional arguments<a class="headerlink" href="#introducing-optional-arguments" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
So far we, have been playing with positional arguments. Let us
have a look on how to add optional ones:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;--verbosity&quot;, help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.verbosity:
 print &quot;verbosity turned on&quot;
</pre></div>
</div>
And the output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py --verbosity 1
verbosity turned on
$ python prog.py
$ python prog.py --help
usage: prog.py [-h] [--verbosity VERBOSITY]

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 --verbosity VERBOSITY
 increase output verbosity
$ python prog.py --verbosity
usage: prog.py [-h] [--verbosity VERBOSITY]
prog.py: error: argument --verbosity: expected one argument
</pre></div>
</div>
Here is what is happening:
<ul class="simple">
<li>The program is written so as to display something when <tt class="docutils literal">--verbosity</tt> is
specified and display nothing when not.</li>
<li>To show that the option is actually optional, there is no error when running
the program without it. Note that by default, if an optional argument isn&#8217;t
used, the relevant variable, in this case <tt class="xref py py-attr docutils literal">args.verbosity</tt>, is
given <tt class="docutils literal">None</tt> as a value, which is the reason it fails the truth
test of the <a class="reference internal" href="../reference/compound_stmts.html#if"><tt class="xref std std-keyword docutils literal">if</tt></a> statement.</li>
<li>The help message is a bit different.</li>
<li>When using the <tt class="docutils literal">--verbosity</tt> option, one must also specify some value,
any value.</li>
</ul>
The above example accepts arbitrary integer values for <tt class="docutils literal">--verbosity</tt>, but for
our simple program, only two values are actually useful, <tt class="docutils literal">True</tt> or <tt class="docutils literal">False</tt>.
Let&#8217;s modify the code accordingly:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;--verbose&quot;, help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;,
 action=&quot;store_true&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.verbose:
 print &quot;verbosity turned on&quot;
</pre></div>
</div>
And the output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py --verbose
verbosity turned on
$ python prog.py --verbose 1
usage: prog.py [-h] [--verbose]
prog.py: error: unrecognized arguments: 1
$ python prog.py --help
usage: prog.py [-h] [--verbose]

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 --verbose increase output verbosity
</pre></div>
</div>
Here is what is happening:
<ul class="simple">
<li>The option is now more of a flag than something that requires a value.
We even changed the name of the option to match that idea.
Note that we now specify a new keyword, <tt class="docutils literal">action</tt>, and give it the value
<tt class="docutils literal">&quot;store_true&quot;</tt>. This means that, if the option is specified,
assign the value <tt class="docutils literal">True</tt> to <tt class="xref py py-data docutils literal">args.verbose</tt>.
Not specifying it implies <tt class="docutils literal">False</tt>.</li>
<li>It complains when you specify a value, in true spirit of what flags
actually are.</li>
<li>Notice the different help text.</li>
</ul>
<div class="section" id="short-options">
<h3>Short options<a class="headerlink" href="#short-options" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
If you are familiar with command line usage,
you will notice that I haven&#8217;t yet touched on the topic of short
versions of the options. It&#8217;s quite simple:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbose&quot;, help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;,
 action=&quot;store_true&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
if args.verbose:
 print &quot;verbosity turned on&quot;
</pre></div>
</div>
And here goes:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py -v
verbosity turned on
$ python prog.py --help
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v]

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 -v, --verbose increase output verbosity
</pre></div>
</div>
Note that the new ability is also reflected in the help text.
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="combining-positional-and-optional-arguments">
<h2>Combining Positional and Optional arguments<a class="headerlink" href="#combining-positional-and-optional-arguments" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
Our program keeps growing in complexity:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbose&quot;, action=&quot;store_true&quot;,
 help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.square**2
if args.verbose:
 print &quot;the square of {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
And now the output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v] square
prog.py: error: the following arguments are required: square
$ python prog.py 4
16
$ python prog.py 4 --verbose
the square of 4 equals 16
$ python prog.py --verbose 4
the square of 4 equals 16
</pre></div>
</div>
<ul class="simple">
<li>We&#8217;ve brought back a positional argument, hence the complaint.</li>
<li>Note that the order does not matter.</li>
</ul>
How about we give this program of ours back the ability to have
multiple verbosity values, and actually get to use them:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.square**2
if args.verbosity == 2:
 print &quot;the square of {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
elif args.verbosity == 1:
 print &quot;{}^2 == {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
And the output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4
16
$ python prog.py 4 -v
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v VERBOSITY] square
prog.py: error: argument -v/--verbosity: expected one argument
$ python prog.py 4 -v 1
4^2 == 16
$ python prog.py 4 -v 2
the square of 4 equals 16
$ python prog.py 4 -v 3
16
</pre></div>
</div>
These all look good except the last one, which exposes a bug in our program.
Let&#8217;s fix it by restricting the values the <tt class="docutils literal">--verbosity</tt> option can accept:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, type=int, choices=[0, 1, 2],
 help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.square**2
if args.verbosity == 2:
 print &quot;the square of {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
elif args.verbosity == 1:
 print &quot;{}^2 == {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
And the output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4 -v 3
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v {0,1,2}] square
prog.py: error: argument -v/--verbosity: invalid choice: 3 (choose from 0, 1, 2)
$ python prog.py 4 -h
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v {0,1,2}] square

positional arguments:
  square                display a square of a given number

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 -v {0,1,2}, --verbosity {0,1,2}
 increase output verbosity
</pre></div>
</div>
Note that the change also reflects both in the error message as well as the
help string.
Now, let&#8217;s use a different approach of playing with verbosity, which is pretty
common. It also matches the way the CPython executable handles its own
verbosity argument (check the output of <tt class="docutils literal">python --help</tt>):
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;display the square of a given number&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, action=&quot;count&quot;,
 help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.square**2
if args.verbosity == 2:
 print &quot;the square of {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
elif args.verbosity == 1:
 print &quot;{}^2 == {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
We have introduced another action, &#8220;count&#8221;,
to count the number of occurences of a specific optional arguments:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4
16
$ python prog.py 4 -v
4^2 == 16
$ python prog.py 4 -vv
the square of 4 equals 16
$ python prog.py 4 --verbosity --verbosity
the square of 4 equals 16
$ python prog.py 4 -v 1
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v] square
prog.py: error: unrecognized arguments: 1
$ python prog.py 4 -h
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v] square

positional arguments:
  square           display a square of a given number

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 -v, --verbosity increase output verbosity
$ python prog.py 4 -vvv
16
</pre></div>
</div>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Yes, it&#8217;s now more of a flag (similar to <tt class="docutils literal">action=&quot;store_true&quot;</tt>) in the
previous version of our script. That should explain the complaint.</li>
<li>It also behaves similar to &#8220;store_true&#8221; action.</li>
<li>Now here&#8217;s a demonstration of what the &#8220;count&#8221; action gives. You&#8217;ve probably
seen this sort of usage before.</li>
<li>And, just like the &#8220;store_true&#8221; action, if you don&#8217;t specify the <tt class="docutils literal">-v</tt> flag,
that flag is considered to have <tt class="docutils literal">None</tt> value.</li>
<li>As should be expected, specifying the long form of the flag, we should get
the same output.</li>
<li>Sadly, our help output isn&#8217;t very informative on the new ability our script
has acquired, but that can always be fixed by improving the documentation for
out script (e.g. via the <tt class="docutils literal">help</tt> keyword argument).</li>
<li>That last output exposes a bug in our program.</li>
</ul>
Let&#8217;s fix:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, action=&quot;count&quot;,
 help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.square**2

# bugfix: replace == with &gt;=
if args.verbosity &gt;= 2:
 print &quot;the square of {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
elif args.verbosity &gt;= 1:
 print &quot;{}^2 == {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
And this is what it gives:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4 -vvv
the square of 4 equals 16
$ python prog.py 4 -vvvv
the square of 4 equals 16
$ python prog.py 4
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File &quot;prog.py&quot;, line 11, in &lt;module&gt;
 if args.verbosity &gt;= 2:
TypeError: unorderable types: NoneType() &gt;= int()
</pre></div>
</div>
<ul class="simple">
<li>First output went well, and fixes the bug we had before.
That is, we want any value &gt;= 2 to be as verbose as possible.</li>
<li>Third output not so good.</li>
</ul>
Let&#8217;s fix that bug:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;square&quot;, type=int,
 help=&quot;display a square of a given number&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, action=&quot;count&quot;, default=0,
 help=&quot;increase output verbosity&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.square**2
if args.verbosity &gt;= 2:
 print &quot;the square of {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
elif args.verbosity &gt;= 1:
 print &quot;{}^2 == {}&quot;.format(args.square, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
We&#8217;ve just introduced yet another keyword, <tt class="docutils literal">default</tt>.
We&#8217;ve set it to <tt class="docutils literal">0</tt> in order to make it comparable to the other int values.
Remember that by default,
if an optional argument isn&#8217;t specified,
it gets the <tt class="docutils literal">None</tt> value, and that cannot be compared to an int value
(hence the <a class="reference internal" href="../library/exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError" title="exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal">TypeError</tt></a> exception).
And:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4
16
</pre></div>
</div>
You can go quite far just with what we&#8217;ve learned so far,
and we have only scratched the surface.
The <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a> module is very powerful,
and we&#8217;ll explore a bit more of it before we end this tutorial.
</div>
<div class="section" id="getting-a-little-more-advanced">
<h2>Getting a little more advanced<a class="headerlink" href="#getting-a-little-more-advanced" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
What if we wanted to expand our tiny program to perform other powers,
not just squares:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;x&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the base&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;y&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the exponent&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, action=&quot;count&quot;, default=0)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.x**args.y
if args.verbosity &gt;= 2:
 print &quot;{} to the power {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.x, args.y, answer)
elif args.verbosity &gt;= 1:
 print &quot;{}^{} == {}&quot;.format(args.x, args.y, answer)
else:
 print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
Output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v] x y
prog.py: error: the following arguments are required: x, y
$ python prog.py -h
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v] x y

positional arguments:
  x                the base
  y                the exponent

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 -v, --verbosity
$ python prog.py 4 2 -v
4^2 == 16
</pre></div>
</div>
Notice that so far we&#8217;ve been using verbosity level to change the text
that gets displayed. The following example instead uses verbosity level
to display more text instead:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(&quot;x&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the base&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;y&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the exponent&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbosity&quot;, action=&quot;count&quot;, default=0)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.x**args.y
if args.verbosity &gt;= 2:
 print &quot;Running &#39;{}&#39;&quot;.format(__file__)
if args.verbosity &gt;= 1:
 print &quot;{}^{} ==&quot;.format(args.x, args.y),
print answer
</pre></div>
</div>
Output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4 2
16
$ python prog.py 4 2 -v
4^2 == 16
$ python prog.py 4 2 -vv
Running &#39;prog.py&#39;
4^2 == 16
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="conflicting-options">
<h3>Conflicting options<a class="headerlink" href="#conflicting-options" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
So far, we have been working with two methods of an
<a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#argparse.ArgumentParser" title="argparse.ArgumentParser"><tt class="xref py py-class docutils literal">argparse.ArgumentParser</tt></a> instance. Let&#8217;s introduce a third one,
<tt class="xref py py-meth docutils literal">add_mutually_exclusive_group()</tt>. It allows for us to specify options that
conflict with each other. Let&#8217;s also change the rest of the program so that
the new functionality makes more sense:
we&#8217;ll introduce the <tt class="docutils literal">--quiet</tt> option,
which will be the opposite of the <tt class="docutils literal">--verbose</tt> one:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbose&quot;, action=&quot;store_true&quot;)
group.add_argument(&quot;-q&quot;, &quot;--quiet&quot;, action=&quot;store_true&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;x&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the base&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;y&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the exponent&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.x**args.y

if args.quiet:
 print answer
elif args.verbose:
 print &quot;{} to the power {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.x, args.y, answer)
else:
 print &quot;{}^{} == {}&quot;.format(args.x, args.y, answer)
</pre></div>
</div>
Our program is now simpler, and we&#8217;ve lost some functionality for the sake of
demonstration. Anyways, here&#8217;s the output:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py 4 2
4^2 == 16
$ python prog.py 4 2 -q
16
$ python prog.py 4 2 -v
4 to the power 2 equals 16
$ python prog.py 4 2 -vq
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v | -q] x y
prog.py: error: argument -q/--quiet: not allowed with argument -v/--verbose
$ python prog.py 4 2 -v --quiet
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v | -q] x y
prog.py: error: argument -q/--quiet: not allowed with argument -v/--verbose
</pre></div>
</div>
That should be easy to follow. I&#8217;ve added that last output so you can see the
sort of flexibility you get, i.e. mixing long form options with short form
ones.
Before we conclude, you probably want to tell your users the main purpose of
your program, just in case they don&#8217;t know:
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre>import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=&quot;calculate X to the power of Y&quot;)
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
group.add_argument(&quot;-v&quot;, &quot;--verbose&quot;, action=&quot;store_true&quot;)
group.add_argument(&quot;-q&quot;, &quot;--quiet&quot;, action=&quot;store_true&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;x&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the base&quot;)
parser.add_argument(&quot;y&quot;, type=int, help=&quot;the exponent&quot;)
args = parser.parse_args()
answer = args.x**args.y

if args.quiet:
 print answer
elif args.verbose:
 print &quot;{} to the power {} equals {}&quot;.format(args.x, args.y, answer)
else:
 print &quot;{}^{} == {}&quot;.format(args.x, args.y, answer)
</pre></div>
</div>
Note that slight difference in the usage text. Note the <tt class="docutils literal">[-v | -q]</tt>,
which tells us that we can either use <tt class="docutils literal">-v</tt> or <tt class="docutils literal">-q</tt>,
but not both at the same time:
<div class="highlight-sh"><div class="highlight"><pre>$ python prog.py --help
usage: prog.py [-h] [-v | -q] x y

calculate X to the power of Y

positional arguments:
  x              the base
  y              the exponent

optional arguments:
 -h, --help show this help message and exit
 -v, --verbose
 -q, --quiet
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="conclusion">
<h2>Conclusion<a class="headerlink" href="#conclusion" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
The <a class="reference internal" href="../library/argparse.html#module-argparse" title="argparse: Command-line option and argument parsing library."><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal">argparse</tt></a> module offers a lot more than shown here.
Its docs are quite detailed and thorough, and full of examples.
Having gone through this tutorial, you should easily digest them
without feeling overwhelmed.
</div>
</div>

</div>
 </div>
 </div>
 <div class="sphinxsidebar">
 <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
 <h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
 <ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Argparse Tutorial</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#concepts">Concepts</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-basics">The basics</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#introducing-positional-arguments">Introducing Positional arguments</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#introducing-optional-arguments">Introducing Optional arguments</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#short-options">Short options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#combining-positional-and-optional-arguments">Combining Positional and Optional arguments</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#getting-a-little-more-advanced">Getting a little more advanced</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#conflicting-options">Conflicting options</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#conclusion">Conclusion</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

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