How to define a function that takes any number of arguments?

Question

I want to make a function that can for example sum up all arguments:

def sum(#elements):
    return(a+...#all elements)

print(sum(1,3,4))

Possible duplicate of [Can a variable number of arguments be passed to a function?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/919680/can-a-variable-number-of-arguments-be-passed-to-a-function) — xskxzr, Apr 21 '18 at 04:24

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 20 '18 at 20:32

3

Put a * before the argument.

def my_sum(*args):
    total = 0
    for arg in args:
        total += arg
    return total

Now you can call it like my_sum(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

answered Apr 20 '18 at 20:32

Gabriel

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Might as well use `sum(args)` – juanpa.arrivillaga Apr 20 '18 at 20:34

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 20 '18 at 20:33

Variable-length arguments

You may need to process a function for more arguments than you specified while defining the function. These arguments are called variable-length arguments and are not named in the function definition, unlike required and default arguments.

def sum( *vartuple ):
   total = 0
   for var in vartuple:
      total += var
   return total

How to define a function that takes any number of arguments?

2 Answers2