What is the correct name for operator *, as in function(*args)? unpack, unzip, something else?
9 Answers
In Ruby and Perl 6 this has been called "splat", and I think most people from those communities will figure out what you mean if you call it that.
The Python tutorial uses the phrase "unpacking argument lists", which is long and descriptive.
It is also referred to as iterable unpacking, or in the case of **,
dictionary unpacking.
7 Comments
John La Rooy
Well in python it's also used to pack argument lists, so in that context should it be called unsplat? :)
Josh Lee
@THC4k I propose
splatsplat.
wberry
Unfortunately INTERCAL does not have
* as an operator so we're lacking for an official source...
Kutyel
In JavaScript (es2015) it is known as the spread operator.
mcp
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I call it "positional expansion", as opposed to ** which I call "keyword expansion".
answered Feb 24, 2010 at 2:40
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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Comments
The Python Tutorial simply calls it 'the *-operator'. It performs unpacking of arbitrary argument lists.
answered Feb 23, 2010 at 22:57
Danilo Piazzalunga
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5 Comments
Nir Alfasi
This is the most accurate answer and it's a shame it wasn't accepted!
HelloGoodbye
@alfasin: The expression 'the
*-operator' is ambiguous since * – depending on the context – can perform either argument expansion or multiplication which are two different operations.Nir Alfasi
@HelloGoodbye and it's really not difficult to understand which one it is from the context it's in.
elPastor
Seems like the OP was asking how to pronounciate (which may or may not be a word itself - that's another rabbit hole)
*. By saying it's the *-operator is simply throwing the question back as an answer. OP probably wanted to know how to say it out loud (or in his head) when he encounters it. This is all new to me, and I'll be going with "splat!".
TaW
If we go for simple let's call it star-operator. But ** could be dasterisk. Hm..
I say "star-args" and Python people seem to know what i mean.
** is trickier - I think just "qargs" since it is usually used as **kw or **kwargs
1 Comment
TM.
I also just say
kwargs, although that doesn't really refer to the operator itself I suppose.One can also call * a gather parameter (when used in function arguments definition) or a scatter operator (when used at function invocation).
As seen here: Think Python/Tuples/Variable-length argument tuples.
2 Comments
Samantha Branham
but you can't yell gather or scatter like you can with SPLAT :D
Anton Strogonoff
@SamanthaBranham I like how gather and scatter can be easily and distinctly visualized. Of course splat visualizes great, too 😂💥
I believe it's most commonly called the "splat operator." Unpacking arguments is what it does.
Comments
For a colloquial name there is "splatting".
For arguments (list type) you use single * and for keyword arguments (dictionary type) you use double **.
Both * and ** is sometimes referred to as "splatting".
See for reference of this name being used: https://stackoverflow.com/a/47875892/14305096
Comments
The technical term for this is a Variadic function. So in a sense, that's the correct term without regard to programming language.
That said, in different languages the term does have legitimate names. As others have mentioned, it is called "splat" in ruby, julia, and several other languages and is noted by that name in official documentation. In javascript it is called the "spread" syntax. It has many other names in many other languages, as mentioned in other answers. Whatever you call it, it's quite useful!
Comments
I call *args "star args" or "varargs" and **kwargs "keyword args".
...operator.