Argparse -- add optional arguments in help string

Question

I have some script on python and argparse, one of optional arguments adds transliteration:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-t', '--text',  
                    action='store_true',
                    help='display a text')
parser.add_argument('-s', '--search', 
                    dest='string', 
                    action='store', 
                    type=str,
                    help='search in a text')
parser.add_argument('--translit', 
                    action='store_true',
                    help='transliterate output; usage: prog [-t | -d STRING] --translit')

results = parser.parse_args()

if len(sys.argv) == 1:
    parser.print_help()
elif results.text and results.translit::
    translit(display_text())
elif results.text and results.translit::
    display_text()
elif results.string and results.translit:
    translit(search(results.string))
elif results.string:
    search(results.string)

Output:

usage: prog [-h] [-t] [-s STRING] [--translit]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help                  show this help message and exit
  -t, --text                  display a text
  -s STRING, --search STRING  search in a text
  --translit                  transliterate output; usage: prog 
                              [-t | -s STRING] --translit

There is no output, when I run prog --translit. I need the string looking so:

usage: prog [-h] [-t] [-s STRING] [[-t | -s STRING] --translit]

When I run prog --translit, the string of output should be:

prog: error: argument --translit: usage: [[-t | -s STRING] --translit]

How can I do this?

It looks to me like --translit should be an option recognized by text and search subcommands. — chepner
– chepner, Commented Jan 21, 2014 at 18:40
You can explicitly set the parser.usage to what every string you want. That can be done when you create the parser, or anytime before you show the help or error message. — hpaulj
– hpaulj, Commented Jan 22, 2014 at 1:34

Silfheed · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-21 23:54:54Z

3

You could make translit a subparser/subcommand which would work as prog translit -h or just prog translit which if there are needed options missing, would display the help text.

Something along the lines of

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-s', '--string', required=True)
subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest='subcommand_name')
translit_parser = subparsers.add_parser('translit')
translit_parser.add_argument('x', required=True)
parser.parse_args()

python test.py translit would output something like:

usage: test.py translit [-h] -x X
test.py translit: error: argument -x is required

answered Jan 21, 2014 at 23:54

Silfheed

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Comments

Spade · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-21 21:46:45Z

1

You probably should write a separate condition for that since there is none that is exclusively checking for that:

elif results.translit:
    parser.print_help()

answered Jan 21, 2014 at 21:46

Spade

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