argparse.rst

:mod:`argparse` --- Parser for command-line options, arguments and sub-commands

.. module:: argparse
   :synopsis: Command-line option and argument parsing library.

.. moduleauthor:: Steven Bethard <steven.bethard@gmail.com>

.. sectionauthor:: Steven Bethard <steven.bethard@gmail.com>

.. versionadded:: 3.2

Source code: :source:`Lib/argparse.py`

---

Tutorial

This page contains the API reference information. For a more gentle introduction to Python command-line parsing, have a look at the :ref:`argparse tutorial <argparse-tutorial>`.

The :mod:`argparse` module makes it easy to write user-friendly command-line interfaces. The program defines what arguments it requires, and :mod:`argparse` will figure out how to parse those out of :data:`sys.argv`. The :mod:`argparse` module also automatically generates help and usage messages. The module will also issue errors when users give the program invalid arguments.

Core Functionality

The :mod:`argparse` module's support for command-line interfaces is built around an instance of :class:`argparse.ArgumentParser`. It is a container for argument specifications and has options that apply the parser as whole:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
                    prog = 'ProgramName',
                    description = 'What the program does',
                    epilog = 'Text at the bottom of help')

The :meth:`ArgumentParser.add_argument` method attaches individual argument specifications to the parser. It supports positional arguments, options that accept values, and on/off flags:

parser.add_argument('filename')           # positional argument
parser.add_argument('-c', '--count')      # option that takes a value
parser.add_argument('-v', '--verbose',
                    action='store_true')  # on/off flag

The :meth:`ArgumentParser.parse_args` method runs the parser and places the extracted data in a :class:`argparse.Namespace` object:

args = parser.parse_args()
print(args.filename, args.count, args.verbose)

Quick Links for add_argument()

Name	Description	Values
action	Specify how an argument should be handled	'store', 'store_const', 'store_true', 'append', 'append_const', 'count', 'help', 'version'
choices	Limit values to a specific set of choices	['foo', 'bar'], range(1, 10), or :class:`~collections.abc.Container` instance
const	Store a constant value
default	Default value used when an argument is not provided	Defaults to None
dest	Specify the attribute name used in the result namespace
help	Help message for an argument
metavar	Alternate display name for the argument as shown in help
nargs	Number of times the argument can be used	:class:`int`, '?', '*', '+', or argparse.REMAINDER
required	Indicate whether an argument is required or optional	True or False
type	Automatically convert an argument to the given type	:class:`int`, :class:`float`, argparse.FileType('w'), or callable function

Example

The following code is a Python program that takes a list of integers and produces either the sum or the max:

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Process some integers.')
parser.add_argument('integers', metavar='N', type=int, nargs='+',
                    help='an integer for the accumulator')
parser.add_argument('--sum', dest='accumulate', action='store_const',
                    const=sum, default=max,
                    help='sum the integers (default: find the max)')

args = parser.parse_args()
print(args.accumulate(args.integers))

Assuming the above Python code is saved into a file called prog.py, it can be run at the command line and it provides useful help messages:

$ python prog.py -h
usage: prog.py [-h] [--sum] N [N ...]

Process some integers.

positional arguments:
 N           an integer for the accumulator

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --sum       sum the integers (default: find the max)

When run with the appropriate arguments, it prints either the sum or the max of the command-line integers:

$ python prog.py 1 2 3 4
4

$ python prog.py 1 2 3 4 --sum
10

If invalid arguments are passed in, an error will be displayed:

$ python prog.py a b c
usage: prog.py [-h] [--sum] N [N ...]
prog.py: error: argument N: invalid int value: 'a'

The following sections walk you through this example.

Creating a parser

The first step in using the :mod:`argparse` is creating an :class:`ArgumentParser` object:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Process some integers.')

The :class:`ArgumentParser` object will hold all the information necessary to parse the command line into Python data types.

Adding arguments

Filling an :class:`ArgumentParser` with information about program arguments is done by making calls to the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` method. Generally, these calls tell the :class:`ArgumentParser` how to take the strings on the command line and turn them into objects. This information is stored and used when :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` is called. For example:

>>> parser.add_argument('integers', metavar='N', type=int, nargs='+',
...                     help='an integer for the accumulator')
>>> parser.add_argument('--sum', dest='accumulate', action='store_const',
...                     const=sum, default=max,
...                     help='sum the integers (default: find the max)')

Later, calling :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` will return an object with two attributes, integers and accumulate. The integers attribute will be a list of one or more integers, and the accumulate attribute will be either the :func:`sum` function, if --sum was specified at the command line, or the :func:`max` function if it was not.

Parsing arguments

:class:`ArgumentParser` parses arguments through the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method. This will inspect the command line, convert each argument to the appropriate type and then invoke the appropriate action. In most cases, this means a simple :class:`Namespace` object will be built up from attributes parsed out of the command line:

>>> parser.parse_args(['--sum', '7', '-1', '42'])
Namespace(accumulate=<built-in function sum>, integers=[7, -1, 42])

In a script, :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` will typically be called with no arguments, and the :class:`ArgumentParser` will automatically determine the command-line arguments from :data:`sys.argv`.

ArgumentParser objects

The following sections describe how each of these are used.

prog

By default, :class:`ArgumentParser` objects use sys.argv[0] to determine how to display the name of the program in help messages. This default is almost always desirable because it will make the help messages match how the program was invoked on the command line. For example, consider a file named myprogram.py with the following code:

import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--foo', help='foo help')
args = parser.parse_args()

The help for this program will display myprogram.py as the program name (regardless of where the program was invoked from):

$ python myprogram.py --help
usage: myprogram.py [-h] [--foo FOO]

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo FOO   foo help
$ cd ..
$ python subdir/myprogram.py --help
usage: myprogram.py [-h] [--foo FOO]

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo FOO   foo help

To change this default behavior, another value can be supplied using the prog= argument to :class:`ArgumentParser`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='myprogram')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: myprogram [-h]

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit

Note that the program name, whether determined from sys.argv[0] or from the prog= argument, is available to help messages using the %(prog)s format specifier.

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='myprogram')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help='foo of the %(prog)s program')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: myprogram [-h] [--foo FOO]

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo FOO   foo of the myprogram program

usage

By default, :class:`ArgumentParser` calculates the usage message from the arguments it contains:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs='?', help='foo help')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='+', help='bar help')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h] [--foo [FOO]] bar [bar ...]

positional arguments:
 bar          bar help

options:
 -h, --help   show this help message and exit
 --foo [FOO]  foo help

The default message can be overridden with the usage= keyword argument:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', usage='%(prog)s [options]')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs='?', help='foo help')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='+', help='bar help')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [options]

positional arguments:
 bar          bar help

options:
 -h, --help   show this help message and exit
 --foo [FOO]  foo help

The %(prog)s format specifier is available to fill in the program name in your usage messages.

description

Most calls to the :class:`ArgumentParser` constructor will use the description= keyword argument. This argument gives a brief description of what the program does and how it works. In help messages, the description is displayed between the command-line usage string and the help messages for the various arguments:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='A foo that bars')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: argparse.py [-h]

A foo that bars

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit

By default, the description will be line-wrapped so that it fits within the given space. To change this behavior, see the formatter_class argument.

epilog

Some programs like to display additional description of the program after the description of the arguments. Such text can be specified using the epilog= argument to :class:`ArgumentParser`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
...     description='A foo that bars',
...     epilog="And that's how you'd foo a bar")
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: argparse.py [-h]

A foo that bars

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit

And that's how you'd foo a bar

As with the description argument, the epilog= text is by default line-wrapped, but this behavior can be adjusted with the formatter_class argument to :class:`ArgumentParser`.

parents

Sometimes, several parsers share a common set of arguments. Rather than repeating the definitions of these arguments, a single parser with all the shared arguments and passed to parents= argument to :class:`ArgumentParser` can be used. The parents= argument takes a list of :class:`ArgumentParser` objects, collects all the positional and optional actions from them, and adds these actions to the :class:`ArgumentParser` object being constructed:

>>> parent_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
>>> parent_parser.add_argument('--parent', type=int)

>>> foo_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(parents=[parent_parser])
>>> foo_parser.add_argument('foo')
>>> foo_parser.parse_args(['--parent', '2', 'XXX'])
Namespace(foo='XXX', parent=2)

>>> bar_parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(parents=[parent_parser])
>>> bar_parser.add_argument('--bar')
>>> bar_parser.parse_args(['--bar', 'YYY'])
Namespace(bar='YYY', parent=None)

Note that most parent parsers will specify add_help=False. Otherwise, the :class:`ArgumentParser` will see two -h/--help options (one in the parent and one in the child) and raise an error.

Note

You must fully initialize the parsers before passing them via parents=. If you change the parent parsers after the child parser, those changes will not be reflected in the child.

formatter_class

:class:`ArgumentParser` objects allow the help formatting to be customized by specifying an alternate formatting class. Currently, there are four such classes:

:class:`RawDescriptionHelpFormatter` and :class:`RawTextHelpFormatter` give more control over how textual descriptions are displayed. By default, :class:`ArgumentParser` objects line-wrap the description and epilog texts in command-line help messages:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
...     prog='PROG',
...     description='''this description
...         was indented weird
...             but that is okay''',
...     epilog='''
...             likewise for this epilog whose whitespace will
...         be cleaned up and whose words will be wrapped
...         across a couple lines''')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h]

this description was indented weird but that is okay

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit

likewise for this epilog whose whitespace will be cleaned up and whose words
will be wrapped across a couple lines

Passing :class:`RawDescriptionHelpFormatter` as formatter_class= indicates that description and epilog are already correctly formatted and should not be line-wrapped:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
...     prog='PROG',
...     formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
...     description=textwrap.dedent('''\
...         Please do not mess up this text!
...         --------------------------------
...             I have indented it
...             exactly the way
...             I want it
...         '''))
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h]

Please do not mess up this text!
--------------------------------
   I have indented it
   exactly the way
   I want it

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit

:class:`RawTextHelpFormatter` maintains whitespace for all sorts of help text, including argument descriptions. However, multiple new lines are replaced with one. If you wish to preserve multiple blank lines, add spaces between the newlines.

:class:`ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter` automatically adds information about default values to each of the argument help messages:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
...     prog='PROG',
...     formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', type=int, default=42, help='FOO!')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='*', default=[1, 2, 3], help='BAR!')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h] [--foo FOO] [bar ...]

positional arguments:
 bar         BAR! (default: [1, 2, 3])

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo FOO   FOO! (default: 42)

:class:`MetavarTypeHelpFormatter` uses the name of the type argument for each argument as the display name for its values (rather than using the dest as the regular formatter does):

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
...     prog='PROG',
...     formatter_class=argparse.MetavarTypeHelpFormatter)
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', type=int)
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', type=float)
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h] [--foo int] float

positional arguments:
  float

options:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  --foo int

prefix_chars

Most command-line options will use - as the prefix, e.g. -f/--foo. Parsers that need to support different or additional prefix characters, e.g. for options like +f or /foo, may specify them using the prefix_chars= argument to the ArgumentParser constructor:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', prefix_chars='-+')
>>> parser.add_argument('+f')
>>> parser.add_argument('++bar')
>>> parser.parse_args('+f X ++bar Y'.split())
Namespace(bar='Y', f='X')

The prefix_chars= argument defaults to '-'. Supplying a set of characters that does not include - will cause -f/--foo options to be disallowed.

fromfile_prefix_chars

Sometimes, when dealing with a particularly long argument list, it may make sense to keep the list of arguments in a file rather than typing it out at the command line. If the fromfile_prefix_chars= argument is given to the :class:`ArgumentParser` constructor, then arguments that start with any of the specified characters will be treated as files, and will be replaced by the arguments they contain. For example:

>>> with open('args.txt', 'w', encoding=sys.getfilesystemencoding()) as fp:
...     fp.write('-f\nbar')
...
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(fromfile_prefix_chars='@')
>>> parser.add_argument('-f')
>>> parser.parse_args(['-f', 'foo', '@args.txt'])
Namespace(f='bar')

Arguments read from a file must by default be one per line (but see also :meth:`~ArgumentParser.convert_arg_line_to_args`) and are treated as if they were in the same place as the original file referencing argument on the command line. So in the example above, the expression ['-f', 'foo', '@args.txt'] is considered equivalent to the expression ['-f', 'foo', '-f', 'bar'].

:class:`ArgumentParser` uses :term:`filesystem encoding and error handler` to read the file containing arguments.

The fromfile_prefix_chars= argument defaults to None, meaning that arguments will never be treated as file references.

.. versionchanged:: 3.12
   :class:`ArgumentParser` changed encoding and errors to read arguments files
   from default (e.g. :func:`locale.getpreferredencoding(False)` and
   ``"strict"``) to :term:`filesystem encoding and error handler`.
   Arguments file should be encoded in UTF-8 instead of ANSI Codepage on Windows.

argument_default

Generally, argument defaults are specified either by passing a default to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` or by calling the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.set_defaults` methods with a specific set of name-value pairs. Sometimes however, it may be useful to specify a single parser-wide default for arguments. This can be accomplished by passing the argument_default= keyword argument to :class:`ArgumentParser`. For example, to globally suppress attribute creation on :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` calls, we supply argument_default=SUPPRESS:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(argument_default=argparse.SUPPRESS)
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='?')
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', '1', 'BAR'])
Namespace(bar='BAR', foo='1')
>>> parser.parse_args([])
Namespace()

allow_abbrev

Normally, when you pass an argument list to the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method of an :class:`ArgumentParser`, it :ref:`recognizes abbreviations <prefix-matching>` of long options.

This feature can be disabled by setting allow_abbrev to False:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', allow_abbrev=False)
>>> parser.add_argument('--foobar', action='store_true')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foonley', action='store_false')
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foon'])
usage: PROG [-h] [--foobar] [--foonley]
PROG: error: unrecognized arguments: --foon

.. versionadded:: 3.5

conflict_handler

:class:`ArgumentParser` objects do not allow two actions with the same option string. By default, :class:`ArgumentParser` objects raise an exception if an attempt is made to create an argument with an option string that is already in use:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-f', '--foo', help='old foo help')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help='new foo help')
Traceback (most recent call last):
 ..
ArgumentError: argument --foo: conflicting option string(s): --foo

Sometimes (e.g. when using parents) it may be useful to simply override any older arguments with the same option string. To get this behavior, the value 'resolve' can be supplied to the conflict_handler= argument of :class:`ArgumentParser`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', conflict_handler='resolve')
>>> parser.add_argument('-f', '--foo', help='old foo help')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help='new foo help')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h] [-f FOO] [--foo FOO]

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 -f FOO      old foo help
 --foo FOO   new foo help

Note that :class:`ArgumentParser` objects only remove an action if all of its option strings are overridden. So, in the example above, the old -f/--foo action is retained as the -f action, because only the --foo option string was overridden.

add_help

By default, ArgumentParser objects add an option which simply displays the parser's help message. For example, consider a file named myprogram.py containing the following code:

import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--foo', help='foo help')
args = parser.parse_args()

If -h or --help is supplied at the command line, the ArgumentParser help will be printed:

$ python myprogram.py --help
usage: myprogram.py [-h] [--foo FOO]

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo FOO   foo help

Occasionally, it may be useful to disable the addition of this help option. This can be achieved by passing False as the add_help= argument to :class:`ArgumentParser`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', add_help=False)
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help='foo help')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [--foo FOO]

options:
 --foo FOO  foo help

The help option is typically -h/--help. The exception to this is if the prefix_chars= is specified and does not include -, in which case -h and --help are not valid options. In this case, the first character in prefix_chars is used to prefix the help options:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', prefix_chars='+/')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [+h]

options:
  +h, ++help  show this help message and exit

exit_on_error

Normally, when you pass an invalid argument list to the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method of an :class:`ArgumentParser`, it will exit with error info.

If the user would like to catch errors manually, the feature can be enabled by setting exit_on_error to False:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(exit_on_error=False)
>>> parser.add_argument('--integers', type=int)
_StoreAction(option_strings=['--integers'], dest='integers', nargs=None, const=None, default=None, type=<class 'int'>, choices=None, help=None, metavar=None)
>>> try:
...     parser.parse_args('--integers a'.split())
... except argparse.ArgumentError:
...     print('Catching an argumentError')
...
Catching an argumentError

.. versionadded:: 3.9

The add_argument() method

.. method:: ArgumentParser.add_argument(name or flags..., [action], [nargs], \
                           [const], [default], [type], [choices], [required], \
                           [help], [metavar], [dest])

   Define how a single command-line argument should be parsed.  Each parameter
   has its own more detailed description below, but in short they are:

   * `name or flags`_ - Either a name or a list of option strings, e.g. ``foo``
     or ``-f, --foo``.

   * action_ - The basic type of action to be taken when this argument is
     encountered at the command line.

   * nargs_ - The number of command-line arguments that should be consumed.

   * const_ - A constant value required by some action_ and nargs_ selections.

   * default_ - The value produced if the argument is absent from the
     command line and if it is absent from the namespace object.

   * type_ - The type to which the command-line argument should be converted.

   * choices_ - A container of the allowable values for the argument.

   * required_ - Whether or not the command-line option may be omitted
     (optionals only).

   * help_ - A brief description of what the argument does.

   * metavar_ - A name for the argument in usage messages.

   * dest_ - The name of the attribute to be added to the object returned by
     :meth:`parse_args`.

The following sections describe how each of these are used.

name or flags

The :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` method must know whether an optional argument, like -f or --foo, or a positional argument, like a list of filenames, is expected. The first arguments passed to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` must therefore be either a series of flags, or a simple argument name.

For example, an optional argument could be created like:

>>> parser.add_argument('-f', '--foo')

while a positional argument could be created like:

>>> parser.add_argument('bar')

When :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` is called, optional arguments will be identified by the - prefix, and the remaining arguments will be assumed to be positional:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-f', '--foo')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar')
>>> parser.parse_args(['BAR'])
Namespace(bar='BAR', foo=None)
>>> parser.parse_args(['BAR', '--foo', 'FOO'])
Namespace(bar='BAR', foo='FOO')
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'FOO'])
usage: PROG [-h] [-f FOO] bar
PROG: error: the following arguments are required: bar

action

:class:`ArgumentParser` objects associate command-line arguments with actions. These actions can do just about anything with the command-line arguments associated with them, though most actions simply add an attribute to the object returned by :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args`. The action keyword argument specifies how the command-line arguments should be handled. The supplied actions are:

• 'store' - This just stores the argument's value. This is the default action. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
  >>> parser.parse_args('--foo 1'.split())
  Namespace(foo='1')
  

• 'store_const' - This stores the value specified by the const keyword argument; note that the const keyword argument defaults to None. The 'store_const' action is most commonly used with optional arguments that specify some sort of flag. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action='store_const', const=42)
  >>> parser.parse_args(['--foo'])
  Namespace(foo=42)
  

• 'store_true' and 'store_false' - These are special cases of 'store_const' used for storing the values True and False respectively. In addition, they create default values of False and True respectively. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true')
  >>> parser.add_argument('--bar', action='store_false')
  >>> parser.add_argument('--baz', action='store_false')
  >>> parser.parse_args('--foo --bar'.split())
  Namespace(foo=True, bar=False, baz=True)
  

• 'append' - This stores a list, and appends each argument value to the list. It is useful to allow an option to be specified multiple times. If the default value is non-empty, the default elements will be present in the parsed value for the option, with any values from the command line appended after those default values. Example usage:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action='append')
  >>> parser.parse_args('--foo 1 --foo 2'.split())
  Namespace(foo=['1', '2'])
  

• 'append_const' - This stores a list, and appends the value specified by the const keyword argument to the list; note that the const keyword argument defaults to None. The 'append_const' action is typically useful when multiple arguments need to store constants to the same list. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--str', dest='types', action='append_const', const=str)
  >>> parser.add_argument('--int', dest='types', action='append_const', const=int)
  >>> parser.parse_args('--str --int'.split())
  Namespace(types=[<class 'str'>, <class 'int'>])
  

• 'count' - This counts the number of times a keyword argument occurs. For example, this is useful for increasing verbosity levels:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--verbose', '-v', action='count', default=0)
  >>> parser.parse_args(['-vvv'])
  Namespace(verbose=3)
  

  Note, the default will be None unless explicitly set to 0.

• 'help' - This prints a complete help message for all the options in the current parser and then exits. By default a help action is automatically added to the parser. See :class:`ArgumentParser` for details of how the output is created.

• 'version' - This expects a version= keyword argument in the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` call, and prints version information and exits when invoked:

  >>> import argparse
  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
  >>> parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version='%(prog)s 2.0')
  >>> parser.parse_args(['--version'])
  PROG 2.0
  

• 'extend' - This stores a list, and extends each argument value to the list. Example usage:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument("--foo", action="extend", nargs="+", type=str)
  >>> parser.parse_args(["--foo", "f1", "--foo", "f2", "f3", "f4"])
  Namespace(foo=['f1', 'f2', 'f3', 'f4'])
  

  .. versionadded:: 3.8
  
  

You may also specify an arbitrary action by passing an Action subclass or other object that implements the same interface. The BooleanOptionalAction is available in argparse and adds support for boolean actions such as --foo and --no-foo:

>>> import argparse
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action=argparse.BooleanOptionalAction)
>>> parser.parse_args(['--no-foo'])
Namespace(foo=False)

.. versionadded:: 3.9

The recommended way to create a custom action is to extend :class:`Action`, overriding the __call__ method and optionally the __init__ and format_usage methods.

An example of a custom action:

>>> class FooAction(argparse.Action):
...     def __init__(self, option_strings, dest, nargs=None, **kwargs):
...         if nargs is not None:
...             raise ValueError("nargs not allowed")
...         super().__init__(option_strings, dest, **kwargs)
...     def __call__(self, parser, namespace, values, option_string=None):
...         print('%r %r %r' % (namespace, values, option_string))
...         setattr(namespace, self.dest, values)
...
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action=FooAction)
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', action=FooAction)
>>> args = parser.parse_args('1 --foo 2'.split())
Namespace(bar=None, foo=None) '1' None
Namespace(bar='1', foo=None) '2' '--foo'
>>> args
Namespace(bar='1', foo='2')

For more details, see :class:`Action`.

nargs

ArgumentParser objects usually associate a single command-line argument with a single action to be taken. The nargs keyword argument associates a different number of command-line arguments with a single action. See also :ref:`specifying-ambiguous-arguments`. The supported values are:

• N (an integer). N arguments from the command line will be gathered together into a list. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs=2)
  >>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs=1)
  >>> parser.parse_args('c --foo a b'.split())
  Namespace(bar=['c'], foo=['a', 'b'])
  

  Note that nargs=1 produces a list of one item. This is different from the default, in which the item is produced by itself.

.. index:: single: ? (question mark); in argparse module

• '?'. One argument will be consumed from the command line if possible, and produced as a single item. If no command-line argument is present, the value from default will be produced. Note that for optional arguments, there is an additional case - the option string is present but not followed by a command-line argument. In this case the value from const will be produced. Some examples to illustrate this:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs='?', const='c', default='d')
  >>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='?', default='d')
  >>> parser.parse_args(['XX', '--foo', 'YY'])
  Namespace(bar='XX', foo='YY')
  >>> parser.parse_args(['XX', '--foo'])
  Namespace(bar='XX', foo='c')
  >>> parser.parse_args([])
  Namespace(bar='d', foo='d')
  

  One of the more common uses of nargs='?' is to allow optional input and output files:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('infile', nargs='?', type=argparse.FileType('r'),
  ...                     default=sys.stdin)
  >>> parser.add_argument('outfile', nargs='?', type=argparse.FileType('w'),
  ...                     default=sys.stdout)
  >>> parser.parse_args(['input.txt', 'output.txt'])
  Namespace(infile=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='input.txt' encoding='UTF-8'>,
            outfile=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='output.txt' encoding='UTF-8'>)
  >>> parser.parse_args([])
  Namespace(infile=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='<stdin>' encoding='UTF-8'>,
            outfile=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='<stdout>' encoding='UTF-8'>)
  

.. index:: single: * (asterisk); in argparse module

• '*'. All command-line arguments present are gathered into a list. Note that it generally doesn't make much sense to have more than one positional argument with nargs='*', but multiple optional arguments with nargs='*' is possible. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
  >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs='*')
  >>> parser.add_argument('--bar', nargs='*')
  >>> parser.add_argument('baz', nargs='*')
  >>> parser.parse_args('a b --foo x y --bar 1 2'.split())
  Namespace(bar=['1', '2'], baz=['a', 'b'], foo=['x', 'y'])
  

.. index:: single: + (plus); in argparse module

• '+'. Just like '*', all command-line args present are gathered into a list. Additionally, an error message will be generated if there wasn't at least one command-line argument present. For example:

  >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
  >>> parser.add_argument('foo', nargs='+')
  >>> parser.parse_args(['a', 'b'])
  Namespace(foo=['a', 'b'])
  >>> parser.parse_args([])
  usage: PROG [-h] foo [foo ...]
  PROG: error: the following arguments are required: foo
  

If the nargs keyword argument is not provided, the number of arguments consumed is determined by the action. Generally this means a single command-line argument will be consumed and a single item (not a list) will be produced.

const

The const argument of :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` is used to hold constant values that are not read from the command line but are required for the various :class:`ArgumentParser` actions. The two most common uses of it are:

• When :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` is called with action='store_const' or action='append_const'. These actions add the const value to one of the attributes of the object returned by :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args`. See the action description for examples. If const is not provided to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`, it will receive a default value of None.
• When :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` is called with option strings (like -f or --foo) and nargs='?'. This creates an optional argument that can be followed by zero or one command-line arguments. When parsing the command line, if the option string is encountered with no command-line argument following it, the value of const will be assumed to be None instead. See the nargs description for examples.

.. versionchanged:: 3.11
   ``const=None`` by default, including when ``action='append_const'`` or
   ``action='store_const'``.

default

All optional arguments and some positional arguments may be omitted at the command line. The default keyword argument of :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`, whose value defaults to None, specifies what value should be used if the command-line argument is not present. For optional arguments, the default value is used when the option string was not present at the command line:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default=42)
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', '2'])
Namespace(foo='2')
>>> parser.parse_args([])
Namespace(foo=42)

If the target namespace already has an attribute set, the action default will not over write it:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default=42)
>>> parser.parse_args([], namespace=argparse.Namespace(foo=101))
Namespace(foo=101)

If the default value is a string, the parser parses the value as if it were a command-line argument. In particular, the parser applies any type conversion argument, if provided, before setting the attribute on the :class:`Namespace` return value. Otherwise, the parser uses the value as is:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--length', default='10', type=int)
>>> parser.add_argument('--width', default=10.5, type=int)
>>> parser.parse_args()
Namespace(length=10, width=10.5)

For positional arguments with nargs equal to ? or *, the default value is used when no command-line argument was present:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('foo', nargs='?', default=42)
>>> parser.parse_args(['a'])
Namespace(foo='a')
>>> parser.parse_args([])
Namespace(foo=42)

Providing default=argparse.SUPPRESS causes no attribute to be added if the command-line argument was not present:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default=argparse.SUPPRESS)
>>> parser.parse_args([])
Namespace()
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', '1'])
Namespace(foo='1')

type

By default, the parser reads command-line arguments in as simple strings. However, quite often the command-line string should instead be interpreted as another type, such as a :class:`float` or :class:`int`. The type keyword for :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` allows any necessary type-checking and type conversions to be performed.

If the type keyword is used with the default keyword, the type converter is only applied if the default is a string.

The argument to type can be any callable that accepts a single string. If the function raises :exc:`ArgumentTypeError`, :exc:`TypeError`, or :exc:`ValueError`, the exception is caught and a nicely formatted error message is displayed. No other exception types are handled.

Common built-in types and functions can be used as type converters:

.. testcode::

   import argparse
   import pathlib

   parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
   parser.add_argument('count', type=int)
   parser.add_argument('distance', type=float)
   parser.add_argument('street', type=ascii)
   parser.add_argument('code_point', type=ord)
   parser.add_argument('source_file', type=open)
   parser.add_argument('dest_file', type=argparse.FileType('w', encoding='latin-1'))
   parser.add_argument('datapath', type=pathlib.Path)

User defined functions can be used as well:

>>> def hyphenated(string):
...     return '-'.join([word[:4] for word in string.casefold().split()])
...
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> _ = parser.add_argument('short_title', type=hyphenated)
>>> parser.parse_args(['"The Tale of Two Cities"'])
Namespace(short_title='"the-tale-of-two-citi')

The :func:`bool` function is not recommended as a type converter. All it does is convert empty strings to False and non-empty strings to True. This is usually not what is desired.

In general, the type keyword is a convenience that should only be used for simple conversions that can only raise one of the three supported exceptions. Anything with more interesting error-handling or resource management should be done downstream after the arguments are parsed.

For example, JSON or YAML conversions have complex error cases that require better reporting than can be given by the type keyword. A :exc:`~json.JSONDecodeError` would not be well formatted and a :exc:`FileNotFound` exception would not be handled at all.

Even :class:`~argparse.FileType` has its limitations for use with the type keyword. If one argument uses FileType and then a subsequent argument fails, an error is reported but the file is not automatically closed. In this case, it would be better to wait until after the parser has run and then use the :keyword:`with`-statement to manage the files.

For type checkers that simply check against a fixed set of values, consider using the choices keyword instead.

choices

Some command-line arguments should be selected from a restricted set of values. These can be handled by passing a container object as the choices keyword argument to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`. When the command line is parsed, argument values will be checked, and an error message will be displayed if the argument was not one of the acceptable values:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='game.py')
>>> parser.add_argument('move', choices=['rock', 'paper', 'scissors'])
>>> parser.parse_args(['rock'])
Namespace(move='rock')
>>> parser.parse_args(['fire'])
usage: game.py [-h] {rock,paper,scissors}
game.py: error: argument move: invalid choice: 'fire' (choose from 'rock',
'paper', 'scissors')

Note that inclusion in the choices container is checked after any type conversions have been performed, so the type of the objects in the choices container should match the type specified:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='doors.py')
>>> parser.add_argument('door', type=int, choices=range(1, 4))
>>> print(parser.parse_args(['3']))
Namespace(door=3)
>>> parser.parse_args(['4'])
usage: doors.py [-h] {1,2,3}
doors.py: error: argument door: invalid choice: 4 (choose from 1, 2, 3)

Any container can be passed as the choices value, so :class:`list` objects, :class:`set` objects, and custom containers are all supported.

Use of :class:`enum.Enum` is not recommended because it is difficult to control its appearance in usage, help, and error messages.

Formatted choices override the default metavar which is normally derived from dest. This is usually what you want because the user never sees the dest parameter. If this display isn't desirable (perhaps because there are many choices), just specify an explicit metavar.

required

In general, the :mod:`argparse` module assumes that flags like -f and --bar indicate optional arguments, which can always be omitted at the command line. To make an option required, True can be specified for the required= keyword argument to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', required=True)
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'BAR'])
Namespace(foo='BAR')
>>> parser.parse_args([])
usage: [-h] --foo FOO
: error: the following arguments are required: --foo

As the example shows, if an option is marked as required, :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` will report an error if that option is not present at the command line.

Note

Required options are generally considered bad form because users expect options to be optional, and thus they should be avoided when possible.

help

The help value is a string containing a brief description of the argument. When a user requests help (usually by using -h or --help at the command line), these help descriptions will be displayed with each argument:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='frobble')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true',
...                     help='foo the bars before frobbling')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='+',
...                     help='one of the bars to be frobbled')
>>> parser.parse_args(['-h'])
usage: frobble [-h] [--foo] bar [bar ...]

positional arguments:
 bar     one of the bars to be frobbled

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo   foo the bars before frobbling

The help strings can include various format specifiers to avoid repetition of things like the program name or the argument default. The available specifiers include the program name, %(prog)s and most keyword arguments to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`, e.g. %(default)s, %(type)s, etc.:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='frobble')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='?', type=int, default=42,
...                     help='the bar to %(prog)s (default: %(default)s)')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: frobble [-h] [bar]

positional arguments:
 bar     the bar to frobble (default: 42)

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit

As the help string supports %-formatting, if you want a literal % to appear in the help string, you must escape it as %%.

:mod:`argparse` supports silencing the help entry for certain options, by setting the help value to argparse.SUPPRESS:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='frobble')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', help=argparse.SUPPRESS)
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: frobble [-h]

options:
  -h, --help  show this help message and exit

metavar

When :class:`ArgumentParser` generates help messages, it needs some way to refer to each expected argument. By default, ArgumentParser objects use the dest value as the "name" of each object. By default, for positional argument actions, the dest value is used directly, and for optional argument actions, the dest value is uppercased. So, a single positional argument with dest='bar' will be referred to as bar. A single optional argument --foo that should be followed by a single command-line argument will be referred to as FOO. An example:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar')
>>> parser.parse_args('X --foo Y'.split())
Namespace(bar='X', foo='Y')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage:  [-h] [--foo FOO] bar

positional arguments:
 bar

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo FOO

An alternative name can be specified with metavar:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', metavar='YYY')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', metavar='XXX')
>>> parser.parse_args('X --foo Y'.split())
Namespace(bar='X', foo='Y')
>>> parser.print_help()
usage:  [-h] [--foo YYY] XXX

positional arguments:
 XXX

options:
 -h, --help  show this help message and exit
 --foo YYY

Note that metavar only changes the displayed name - the name of the attribute on the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` object is still determined by the dest value.

Different values of nargs may cause the metavar to be used multiple times. Providing a tuple to metavar specifies a different display for each of the arguments:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-x', nargs=2)
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs=2, metavar=('bar', 'baz'))
>>> parser.print_help()
usage: PROG [-h] [-x X X] [--foo bar baz]

options:
 -h, --help     show this help message and exit
 -x X X
 --foo bar baz

dest

Most :class:`ArgumentParser` actions add some value as an attribute of the object returned by :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args`. The name of this attribute is determined by the dest keyword argument of :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`. For positional argument actions, dest is normally supplied as the first argument to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('bar')
>>> parser.parse_args(['XXX'])
Namespace(bar='XXX')

For optional argument actions, the value of dest is normally inferred from the option strings. :class:`ArgumentParser` generates the value of dest by taking the first long option string and stripping away the initial -- string. If no long option strings were supplied, dest will be derived from the first short option string by stripping the initial - character. Any internal - characters will be converted to _ characters to make sure the string is a valid attribute name. The examples below illustrate this behavior:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('-f', '--foo-bar', '--foo')
>>> parser.add_argument('-x', '-y')
>>> parser.parse_args('-f 1 -x 2'.split())
Namespace(foo_bar='1', x='2')
>>> parser.parse_args('--foo 1 -y 2'.split())
Namespace(foo_bar='1', x='2')

dest allows a custom attribute name to be provided:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', dest='bar')
>>> parser.parse_args('--foo XXX'.split())
Namespace(bar='XXX')

Action classes

Action classes implement the Action API, a callable which returns a callable which processes arguments from the command-line. Any object which follows this API may be passed as the action parameter to :meth:`add_argument`.

Action objects are used by an ArgumentParser to represent the information needed to parse a single argument from one or more strings from the command line. The Action class must accept the two positional arguments plus any keyword arguments passed to :meth:`ArgumentParser.add_argument` except for the action itself.

Instances of Action (or return value of any callable to the action parameter) should have attributes "dest", "option_strings", "default", "type", "required", "help", etc. defined. The easiest way to ensure these attributes are defined is to call Action.__init__.

Action instances should be callable, so subclasses must override the __call__ method, which should accept four parameters:

• parser - The ArgumentParser object which contains this action.
• namespace - The :class:`Namespace` object that will be returned by :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args`. Most actions add an attribute to this object using :func:`setattr`.
• values - The associated command-line arguments, with any type conversions applied. Type conversions are specified with the type keyword argument to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument`.
• option_string - The option string that was used to invoke this action. The option_string argument is optional, and will be absent if the action is associated with a positional argument.

The __call__ method may perform arbitrary actions, but will typically set attributes on the namespace based on dest and values.

Action subclasses can define a format_usage method that takes no argument and return a string which will be used when printing the usage of the program. If such method is not provided, a sensible default will be used.

The parse_args() method

.. method:: ArgumentParser.parse_args(args=None, namespace=None)

   Convert argument strings to objects and assign them as attributes of the
   namespace.  Return the populated namespace.

   Previous calls to :meth:`add_argument` determine exactly what objects are
   created and how they are assigned. See the documentation for
   :meth:`add_argument` for details.

   * args_ - List of strings to parse.  The default is taken from
     :data:`sys.argv`.

   * namespace_ - An object to take the attributes.  The default is a new empty
     :class:`Namespace` object.

Option value syntax

The :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method supports several ways of specifying the value of an option (if it takes one). In the simplest case, the option and its value are passed as two separate arguments:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-x')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
>>> parser.parse_args(['-x', 'X'])
Namespace(foo=None, x='X')
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'FOO'])
Namespace(foo='FOO', x=None)

For long options (options with names longer than a single character), the option and value can also be passed as a single command-line argument, using = to separate them:

>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo=FOO'])
Namespace(foo='FOO', x=None)

For short options (options only one character long), the option and its value can be concatenated:

>>> parser.parse_args(['-xX'])
Namespace(foo=None, x='X')

Several short options can be joined together, using only a single - prefix, as long as only the last option (or none of them) requires a value:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-x', action='store_true')
>>> parser.add_argument('-y', action='store_true')
>>> parser.add_argument('-z')
>>> parser.parse_args(['-xyzZ'])
Namespace(x=True, y=True, z='Z')

Invalid arguments

While parsing the command line, :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` checks for a variety of errors, including ambiguous options, invalid types, invalid options, wrong number of positional arguments, etc. When it encounters such an error, it exits and prints the error along with a usage message:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', type=int)
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs='?')

>>> # invalid type
>>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'spam'])
usage: PROG [-h] [--foo FOO] [bar]
PROG: error: argument --foo: invalid int value: 'spam'

>>> # invalid option
>>> parser.parse_args(['--bar'])
usage: PROG [-h] [--foo FOO] [bar]
PROG: error: no such option: --bar

>>> # wrong number of arguments
>>> parser.parse_args(['spam', 'badger'])
usage: PROG [-h] [--foo FOO] [bar]
PROG: error: extra arguments found: badger

Arguments containing -

The :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method attempts to give errors whenever the user has clearly made a mistake, but some situations are inherently ambiguous. For example, the command-line argument -1 could either be an attempt to specify an option or an attempt to provide a positional argument. The :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method is cautious here: positional arguments may only begin with - if they look like negative numbers and there are no options in the parser that look like negative numbers:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-x')
>>> parser.add_argument('foo', nargs='?')

>>> # no negative number options, so -1 is a positional argument
>>> parser.parse_args(['-x', '-1'])
Namespace(foo=None, x='-1')

>>> # no negative number options, so -1 and -5 are positional arguments
>>> parser.parse_args(['-x', '-1', '-5'])
Namespace(foo='-5', x='-1')

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-1', dest='one')
>>> parser.add_argument('foo', nargs='?')

>>> # negative number options present, so -1 is an option
>>> parser.parse_args(['-1', 'X'])
Namespace(foo=None, one='X')

>>> # negative number options present, so -2 is an option
>>> parser.parse_args(['-2'])
usage: PROG [-h] [-1 ONE] [foo]
PROG: error: no such option: -2

>>> # negative number options present, so both -1s are options
>>> parser.parse_args(['-1', '-1'])
usage: PROG [-h] [-1 ONE] [foo]
PROG: error: argument -1: expected one argument

If you have positional arguments that must begin with - and don't look like negative numbers, you can insert the pseudo-argument '--' which tells :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` that everything after that is a positional argument:

>>> parser.parse_args(['--', '-f'])
Namespace(foo='-f', one=None)

See also :ref:`the argparse howto on ambiguous arguments <specifying-ambiguous-arguments>` for more details.

Argument abbreviations (prefix matching)

The :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` method :ref:`by default <allow_abbrev>` allows long options to be abbreviated to a prefix, if the abbreviation is unambiguous (the prefix matches a unique option):

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
>>> parser.add_argument('-bacon')
>>> parser.add_argument('-badger')
>>> parser.parse_args('-bac MMM'.split())
Namespace(bacon='MMM', badger=None)
>>> parser.parse_args('-bad WOOD'.split())
Namespace(bacon=None, badger='WOOD')
>>> parser.parse_args('-ba BA'.split())
usage: PROG [-h] [-bacon BACON] [-badger BADGER]
PROG: error: ambiguous option: -ba could match -badger, -bacon

An error is produced for arguments that could produce more than one options. This feature can be disabled by setting :ref:`allow_abbrev` to False.

Beyond sys.argv

Sometimes it may be useful to have an ArgumentParser parse arguments other than those of :data:`sys.argv`. This can be accomplished by passing a list of strings to :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args`. This is useful for testing at the interactive prompt:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument(
...     'integers', metavar='int', type=int, choices=range(10),
...     nargs='+', help='an integer in the range 0..9')
>>> parser.add_argument(
...     '--sum', dest='accumulate', action='store_const', const=sum,
...     default=max, help='sum the integers (default: find the max)')
>>> parser.parse_args(['1', '2', '3', '4'])
Namespace(accumulate=<built-in function max>, integers=[1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> parser.parse_args(['1', '2', '3', '4', '--sum'])
Namespace(accumulate=<built-in function sum>, integers=[1, 2, 3, 4])

The Namespace object

Simple class used by default by :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` to create an object holding attributes and return it.

This class is deliberately simple, just an :class:`object` subclass with a readable string representation. If you prefer to have dict-like view of the attributes, you can use the standard Python idiom, :func:`vars`:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
>>> args = parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'BAR'])
>>> vars(args)
{'foo': 'BAR'}

It may also be useful to have an :class:`ArgumentParser` assign attributes to an already existing object, rather than a new :class:`Namespace` object. This can be achieved by specifying the namespace= keyword argument:

>>> class C:
...     pass
...
>>> c = C()
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
>>> parser.parse_args(args=['--foo', 'BAR'], namespace=c)
>>> c.foo
'BAR'

Other utilities

Sub-commands

.. method:: ArgumentParser.add_subparsers([title], [description], [prog], \
                                          [parser_class], [action], \
                                          [option_strings], [dest], [required], \
                                          [help], [metavar])

   Many programs split up their functionality into a number of sub-commands,
   for example, the ``svn`` program can invoke sub-commands like ``svn
   checkout``, ``svn update``, and ``svn commit``.  Splitting up functionality
   this way can be a particularly good idea when a program performs several
   different functions which require different kinds of command-line arguments.
   :class:`ArgumentParser` supports the creation of such sub-commands with the
   :meth:`add_subparsers` method.  The :meth:`add_subparsers` method is normally
   called with no arguments and returns a special action object.  This object
   has a single method, :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_parser`, which takes a
   command name and any :class:`ArgumentParser` constructor arguments, and
   returns an :class:`ArgumentParser` object that can be modified as usual.

   Description of parameters:

   * title - title for the sub-parser group in help output; by default
     "subcommands" if description is provided, otherwise uses title for
     positional arguments

   * description - description for the sub-parser group in help output, by
     default ``None``

   * prog - usage information that will be displayed with sub-command help,
     by default the name of the program and any positional arguments before the
     subparser argument

   * parser_class - class which will be used to create sub-parser instances, by
     default the class of the current parser (e.g. ArgumentParser)

   * action_ - the basic type of action to be taken when this argument is
     encountered at the command line

   * dest_ - name of the attribute under which sub-command name will be
     stored; by default ``None`` and no value is stored

   * required_ - Whether or not a subcommand must be provided, by default
     ``False`` (added in 3.7)

   * help_ - help for sub-parser group in help output, by default ``None``

   * metavar_ - string presenting available sub-commands in help; by default it
     is ``None`` and presents sub-commands in form {cmd1, cmd2, ..}

   Some example usage::

     >>> # create the top-level parser
     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
     >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true', help='foo help')
     >>> subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(help='sub-command help')
     >>>
     >>> # create the parser for the "a" command
     >>> parser_a = subparsers.add_parser('a', help='a help')
     >>> parser_a.add_argument('bar', type=int, help='bar help')
     >>>
     >>> # create the parser for the "b" command
     >>> parser_b = subparsers.add_parser('b', help='b help')
     >>> parser_b.add_argument('--baz', choices='XYZ', help='baz help')
     >>>
     >>> # parse some argument lists
     >>> parser.parse_args(['a', '12'])
     Namespace(bar=12, foo=False)
     >>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'b', '--baz', 'Z'])
     Namespace(baz='Z', foo=True)

   Note that the object returned by :meth:`parse_args` will only contain
   attributes for the main parser and the subparser that was selected by the
   command line (and not any other subparsers).  So in the example above, when
   the ``a`` command is specified, only the ``foo`` and ``bar`` attributes are
   present, and when the ``b`` command is specified, only the ``foo`` and
   ``baz`` attributes are present.

   Similarly, when a help message is requested from a subparser, only the help
   for that particular parser will be printed.  The help message will not
   include parent parser or sibling parser messages.  (A help message for each
   subparser command, however, can be given by supplying the ``help=`` argument
   to :meth:`add_parser` as above.)

   ::

     >>> parser.parse_args(['--help'])
     usage: PROG [-h] [--foo] {a,b} ...

     positional arguments:
       {a,b}   sub-command help
         a     a help
         b     b help

     options:
       -h, --help  show this help message and exit
       --foo   foo help

     >>> parser.parse_args(['a', '--help'])
     usage: PROG a [-h] bar

     positional arguments:
       bar     bar help

     options:
       -h, --help  show this help message and exit

     >>> parser.parse_args(['b', '--help'])
     usage: PROG b [-h] [--baz {X,Y,Z}]

     options:
       -h, --help     show this help message and exit
       --baz {X,Y,Z}  baz help

   The :meth:`add_subparsers` method also supports ``title`` and ``description``
   keyword arguments.  When either is present, the subparser's commands will
   appear in their own group in the help output.  For example::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(title='subcommands',
     ...                                    description='valid subcommands',
     ...                                    help='additional help')
     >>> subparsers.add_parser('foo')
     >>> subparsers.add_parser('bar')
     >>> parser.parse_args(['-h'])
     usage:  [-h] {foo,bar} ...

     options:
       -h, --help  show this help message and exit

     subcommands:
       valid subcommands

       {foo,bar}   additional help

   Furthermore, ``add_parser`` supports an additional ``aliases`` argument,
   which allows multiple strings to refer to the same subparser. This example,
   like ``svn``, aliases ``co`` as a shorthand for ``checkout``::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> subparsers = parser.add_subparsers()
     >>> checkout = subparsers.add_parser('checkout', aliases=['co'])
     >>> checkout.add_argument('foo')
     >>> parser.parse_args(['co', 'bar'])
     Namespace(foo='bar')

   One particularly effective way of handling sub-commands is to combine the use
   of the :meth:`add_subparsers` method with calls to :meth:`set_defaults` so
   that each subparser knows which Python function it should execute.  For
   example::

     >>> # sub-command functions
     >>> def foo(args):
     ...     print(args.x * args.y)
     ...
     >>> def bar(args):
     ...     print('((%s))' % args.z)
     ...
     >>> # create the top-level parser
     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> subparsers = parser.add_subparsers()
     >>>
     >>> # create the parser for the "foo" command
     >>> parser_foo = subparsers.add_parser('foo')
     >>> parser_foo.add_argument('-x', type=int, default=1)
     >>> parser_foo.add_argument('y', type=float)
     >>> parser_foo.set_defaults(func=foo)
     >>>
     >>> # create the parser for the "bar" command
     >>> parser_bar = subparsers.add_parser('bar')
     >>> parser_bar.add_argument('z')
     >>> parser_bar.set_defaults(func=bar)
     >>>
     >>> # parse the args and call whatever function was selected
     >>> args = parser.parse_args('foo 1 -x 2'.split())
     >>> args.func(args)
     2.0
     >>>
     >>> # parse the args and call whatever function was selected
     >>> args = parser.parse_args('bar XYZYX'.split())
     >>> args.func(args)
     ((XYZYX))

   This way, you can let :meth:`parse_args` do the job of calling the
   appropriate function after argument parsing is complete.  Associating
   functions with actions like this is typically the easiest way to handle the
   different actions for each of your subparsers.  However, if it is necessary
   to check the name of the subparser that was invoked, the ``dest`` keyword
   argument to the :meth:`add_subparsers` call will work::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='subparser_name')
     >>> subparser1 = subparsers.add_parser('1')
     >>> subparser1.add_argument('-x')
     >>> subparser2 = subparsers.add_parser('2')
     >>> subparser2.add_argument('y')
     >>> parser.parse_args(['2', 'frobble'])
     Namespace(subparser_name='2', y='frobble')

   .. versionchanged:: 3.7
      New *required* keyword argument.

FileType objects

The :class:`FileType` factory creates objects that can be passed to the type argument of :meth:`ArgumentParser.add_argument`. Arguments that have :class:`FileType` objects as their type will open command-line arguments as files with the requested modes, buffer sizes, encodings and error handling (see the :func:`open` function for more details):

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--raw', type=argparse.FileType('wb', 0))
>>> parser.add_argument('out', type=argparse.FileType('w', encoding='UTF-8'))
>>> parser.parse_args(['--raw', 'raw.dat', 'file.txt'])
Namespace(out=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='file.txt' mode='w' encoding='UTF-8'>, raw=<_io.FileIO name='raw.dat' mode='wb'>)

FileType objects understand the pseudo-argument '-' and automatically convert this into :data:`sys.stdin` for readable :class:`FileType` objects and :data:`sys.stdout` for writable :class:`FileType` objects:

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('infile', type=argparse.FileType('r'))
>>> parser.parse_args(['-'])
Namespace(infile=<_io.TextIOWrapper name='<stdin>' encoding='UTF-8'>)

.. versionadded:: 3.4
   The *encodings* and *errors* keyword arguments.

Argument groups

.. method:: ArgumentParser.add_argument_group(title=None, description=None)

   By default, :class:`ArgumentParser` groups command-line arguments into
   "positional arguments" and "options" when displaying help
   messages. When there is a better conceptual grouping of arguments than this
   default one, appropriate groups can be created using the
   :meth:`add_argument_group` method::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', add_help=False)
     >>> group = parser.add_argument_group('group')
     >>> group.add_argument('--foo', help='foo help')
     >>> group.add_argument('bar', help='bar help')
     >>> parser.print_help()
     usage: PROG [--foo FOO] bar

     group:
       bar    bar help
       --foo FOO  foo help

   The :meth:`add_argument_group` method returns an argument group object which
   has an :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` method just like a regular
   :class:`ArgumentParser`.  When an argument is added to the group, the parser
   treats it just like a normal argument, but displays the argument in a
   separate group for help messages.  The :meth:`add_argument_group` method
   accepts *title* and *description* arguments which can be used to
   customize this display::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG', add_help=False)
     >>> group1 = parser.add_argument_group('group1', 'group1 description')
     >>> group1.add_argument('foo', help='foo help')
     >>> group2 = parser.add_argument_group('group2', 'group2 description')
     >>> group2.add_argument('--bar', help='bar help')
     >>> parser.print_help()
     usage: PROG [--bar BAR] foo

     group1:
       group1 description

       foo    foo help

     group2:
       group2 description

       --bar BAR  bar help

   Note that any arguments not in your user-defined groups will end up back
   in the usual "positional arguments" and "optional arguments" sections.

   .. versionchanged:: 3.11
    Calling :meth:`add_argument_group` on an argument group is deprecated.
    This feature was never supported and does not always work correctly.
    The function exists on the API by accident through inheritance and
    will be removed in the future.

Mutual exclusion

.. method:: ArgumentParser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=False)

   Create a mutually exclusive group. :mod:`argparse` will make sure that only
   one of the arguments in the mutually exclusive group was present on the
   command line::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
     >>> group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
     >>> group.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true')
     >>> group.add_argument('--bar', action='store_false')
     >>> parser.parse_args(['--foo'])
     Namespace(bar=True, foo=True)
     >>> parser.parse_args(['--bar'])
     Namespace(bar=False, foo=False)
     >>> parser.parse_args(['--foo', '--bar'])
     usage: PROG [-h] [--foo | --bar]
     PROG: error: argument --bar: not allowed with argument --foo

   The :meth:`add_mutually_exclusive_group` method also accepts a *required*
   argument, to indicate that at least one of the mutually exclusive arguments
   is required::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
     >>> group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
     >>> group.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true')
     >>> group.add_argument('--bar', action='store_false')
     >>> parser.parse_args([])
     usage: PROG [-h] (--foo | --bar)
     PROG: error: one of the arguments --foo --bar is required

   Note that currently mutually exclusive argument groups do not support the
   *title* and *description* arguments of
   :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument_group`. However, a mutually exclusive
   group can be added to an argument group that has a title and description.
   For example::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(prog='PROG')
     >>> group = parser.add_argument_group('Group title', 'Group description')
     >>> exclusive_group = group.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
     >>> exclusive_group.add_argument('--foo', help='foo help')
     >>> exclusive_group.add_argument('--bar', help='bar help')
     >>> parser.print_help()
     usage: PROG [-h] (--foo FOO | --bar BAR)

     options:
       -h, --help  show this help message and exit

     Group title:
       Group description

       --foo FOO   foo help
       --bar BAR   bar help

   .. versionchanged:: 3.11
    Calling :meth:`add_argument_group` or :meth:`add_mutually_exclusive_group`
    on a mutually exclusive group is deprecated. These features were never
    supported and do not always work correctly. The functions exist on the
    API by accident through inheritance and will be removed in the future.

Parser defaults

.. method:: ArgumentParser.set_defaults(**kwargs)

   Most of the time, the attributes of the object returned by :meth:`parse_args`
   will be fully determined by inspecting the command-line arguments and the argument
   actions.  :meth:`set_defaults` allows some additional
   attributes that are determined without any inspection of the command line to
   be added::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> parser.add_argument('foo', type=int)
     >>> parser.set_defaults(bar=42, baz='badger')
     >>> parser.parse_args(['736'])
     Namespace(bar=42, baz='badger', foo=736)

   Note that parser-level defaults always override argument-level defaults::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default='bar')
     >>> parser.set_defaults(foo='spam')
     >>> parser.parse_args([])
     Namespace(foo='spam')

   Parser-level defaults can be particularly useful when working with multiple
   parsers.  See the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_subparsers` method for an
   example of this type.

.. method:: ArgumentParser.get_default(dest)

   Get the default value for a namespace attribute, as set by either
   :meth:`~ArgumentParser.add_argument` or by
   :meth:`~ArgumentParser.set_defaults`::

     >>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
     >>> parser.add_argument('--foo', default='badger')
     >>> parser.get_default('foo')
     'badger'

Printing help

In most typical applications, :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` will take care of formatting and printing any usage or error messages. However, several formatting methods are available:

.. method:: ArgumentParser.print_usage(file=None)

   Print a brief description of how the :class:`ArgumentParser` should be
   invoked on the command line.  If *file* is ``None``, :data:`sys.stdout` is
   assumed.

.. method:: ArgumentParser.print_help(file=None)

   Print a help message, including the program usage and information about the
   arguments registered with the :class:`ArgumentParser`.  If *file* is
   ``None``, :data:`sys.stdout` is assumed.

There are also variants of these methods that simply return a string instead of printing it:

.. method:: ArgumentParser.format_usage()

   Return a string containing a brief description of how the
   :class:`ArgumentParser` should be invoked on the command line.

.. method:: ArgumentParser.format_help()

   Return a string containing a help message, including the program usage and
   information about the arguments registered with the :class:`ArgumentParser`.

Partial parsing

.. method:: ArgumentParser.parse_known_args(args=None, namespace=None)

Sometimes a script may only parse a few of the command-line arguments, passing the remaining arguments on to another script or program. In these cases, the :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_known_args` method can be useful. It works much like :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args` except that it does not produce an error when extra arguments are present. Instead, it returns a two item tuple containing the populated namespace and the list of remaining argument strings.

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', action='store_true')
>>> parser.add_argument('bar')
>>> parser.parse_known_args(['--foo', '--badger', 'BAR', 'spam'])
(Namespace(bar='BAR', foo=True), ['--badger', 'spam'])

Warning

:ref:`Prefix matching <prefix-matching>` rules apply to :meth:`parse_known_args`. The parser may consume an option even if it's just a prefix of one of its known options, instead of leaving it in the remaining arguments list.

Customizing file parsing

.. method:: ArgumentParser.convert_arg_line_to_args(arg_line)

   Arguments that are read from a file (see the *fromfile_prefix_chars*
   keyword argument to the :class:`ArgumentParser` constructor) are read one
   argument per line. :meth:`convert_arg_line_to_args` can be overridden for
   fancier reading.

   This method takes a single argument *arg_line* which is a string read from
   the argument file.  It returns a list of arguments parsed from this string.
   The method is called once per line read from the argument file, in order.

   A useful override of this method is one that treats each space-separated word
   as an argument.  The following example demonstrates how to do this::

    class MyArgumentParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
        def convert_arg_line_to_args(self, arg_line):
            return arg_line.split()

Exiting methods

.. method:: ArgumentParser.exit(status=0, message=None)

   This method terminates the program, exiting with the specified *status*
   and, if given, it prints a *message* before that. The user can override
   this method to handle these steps differently::

    class ErrorCatchingArgumentParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
        def exit(self, status=0, message=None):
            if status:
                raise Exception(f'Exiting because of an error: {message}')
            exit(status)

.. method:: ArgumentParser.error(message)

   This method prints a usage message including the *message* to the
   standard error and terminates the program with a status code of 2.

Intermixed parsing

.. method:: ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args(args=None, namespace=None)

.. method:: ArgumentParser.parse_known_intermixed_args(args=None, namespace=None)

A number of Unix commands allow the user to intermix optional arguments with positional arguments. The :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args` and :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_known_intermixed_args` methods support this parsing style.

These parsers do not support all the argparse features, and will raise exceptions if unsupported features are used. In particular, subparsers, argparse.REMAINDER, and mutually exclusive groups that include both optionals and positionals are not supported.

The following example shows the difference between :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_known_args` and :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args`: the former returns ['2', '3'] as unparsed arguments, while the latter collects all the positionals into rest.

>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo')
>>> parser.add_argument('cmd')
>>> parser.add_argument('rest', nargs='*', type=int)
>>> parser.parse_known_args('doit 1 --foo bar 2 3'.split())
(Namespace(cmd='doit', foo='bar', rest=[1]), ['2', '3'])
>>> parser.parse_intermixed_args('doit 1 --foo bar 2 3'.split())
Namespace(cmd='doit', foo='bar', rest=[1, 2, 3])

:meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_known_intermixed_args` returns a two item tuple containing the populated namespace and the list of remaining argument strings. :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args` raises an error if there are any remaining unparsed argument strings.

.. versionadded:: 3.7

Upgrading optparse code

Originally, the :mod:`argparse` module had attempted to maintain compatibility with :mod:`optparse`. However, :mod:`optparse` was difficult to extend transparently, particularly with the changes required to support the new nargs= specifiers and better usage messages. When most everything in :mod:`optparse` had either been copy-pasted over or monkey-patched, it no longer seemed practical to try to maintain the backwards compatibility.

The :mod:`argparse` module improves on the standard library :mod:`optparse` module in a number of ways including:

• Handling positional arguments.
• Supporting sub-commands.
• Allowing alternative option prefixes like + and /.
• Handling zero-or-more and one-or-more style arguments.
• Producing more informative usage messages.
• Providing a much simpler interface for custom type and action.

A partial upgrade path from :mod:`optparse` to :mod:`argparse`:

• Replace all :meth:`optparse.OptionParser.add_option` calls with :meth:`ArgumentParser.add_argument` calls.
• Replace (options, args) = parser.parse_args() with args = parser.parse_args() and add additional :meth:`ArgumentParser.add_argument` calls for the positional arguments. Keep in mind that what was previously called options, now in the :mod:`argparse` context is called args.
• Replace :meth:`optparse.OptionParser.disable_interspersed_args` by using :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_intermixed_args` instead of :meth:`~ArgumentParser.parse_args`.
• Replace callback actions and the callback_* keyword arguments with type or action arguments.
• Replace string names for type keyword arguments with the corresponding type objects (e.g. int, float, complex, etc).
• Replace :class:`optparse.Values` with :class:`Namespace` and :exc:`optparse.OptionError` and :exc:`optparse.OptionValueError` with :exc:`ArgumentError`.
• Replace strings with implicit arguments such as %default or %prog with the standard Python syntax to use dictionaries to format strings, that is, %(default)s and %(prog)s.
• Replace the OptionParser constructor version argument with a call to parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version='<the version>').