What are *args and **kwargs in Python?

In Python, *args and **kwargs are used to pass a variable number of arguments to a function.

• *args collects positional arguments into a tuple.
• **kwargs collects named arguments into a dictionary.

This allows writing functions that accept any number of arguments.

Example:

def func(*args, **kwargs):
    print('Positional arguments:', args)
    print('Named arguments:', kwargs)

func(1, 2, 3, a=4, b=5)

Output:

Positional arguments: (1, 2, 3)
Named arguments: {'a': 4, 'b': 5}

This is useful for creating generic interfaces, proxying calls, and extending functionality without changing the function signature.