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Python Python Collections (2016, retired 2019) Dictionaries Packing and Unpacking Dictionaries

Ceil-Ian Maralit
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Ceil-Ian Maralit
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 19,434 Points
Posted by Ceil-Ian Maralit
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Ceil-Ian Maralit
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 19,434 Points

Why pass it as a dictionary when we can just pass it as key/value pairs?

Hi! I don't understand why it is passed as a dictionary when we can just pass it as key/value pairs and still work the same. Is it just for the sake of clarity?

Here is the their example:

def unpacker(first_name=None, last_name=None): 
    if first_name and last_name:
        print("Hi {} {}!".format(first_name, last_name))
    else:
        print("Hi no name!")

unpacker(**{"first_name": "Ceil", "last_name": "Cisneros"})

Here is my test:

def unpacker(first_name=None, last_name=None): 
    if first_name and last_name:
        print("Hi {} {}!".format(first_name, last_name))
    else:
        print("Hi no name!")

unpacker(first_name = "Ceil", last_name = "Cisneros")

Thanks in advance!

--Ceil

1 Answer

Jeff Muday
MOD
Jeff Muday
Treehouse Moderator 28,716 Points
Jeff Muday
Jeff Muday
Treehouse Moderator 28,716 Points

This challenge is setting you up to have a better understanding of argument passing. In particular, in your Python journey you will run into "args" and "kwargs" as arguments passed into your methods and objects. "kwargs" stands for keyword arguments and can be treated similarly to a dictionary.

Here is a nice blog article from one of my favorite hosting providers-- Digital Ocean:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-args-and-kwargs-in-python-3

rickmerc
rickmerc
2,384 Points

Thanks, Jeff! That article made the video make sense. (It also made it clear that **kwargs is more useful than just putting elements into and out of dictionaries.) Thanks again!

Deividas Paulauskas
Deividas Paulauskas
3,661 Points
Deividas Paulauskas
Deividas Paulauskas
3,661 Points

Thanks, Jeff, that article was very useful and easy to understand!