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Argparse Unable to access optional argument with specific name [duplicate]

I want to have some options in argparse module such as --pm-export however when I try to use it like args.pm-export I get the error that there is not attribute pm. How can I get around this issue? Is it possible to have - in command line options?

As indicated in the argparse docs:
For optional argument actions, the value of dest is normally inferred from the option strings. ArgumentParser generates the value of dest by taking the first long option string and stripping away the initial -- string. Any internal - characters will be converted to _ characters to make sure the string is a valid attribute name
So you should be using args.pm_export.

Unfortunately, dash-to-underscore replacement doesn't work for positional arguments (not prefixed by --).
E.g:
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Process some integers.')
parser.add_argument('logs-dir',
help='Directory with .log and .log.gz files')
parser.add_argument('results-csv', type=argparse.FileType('w'),
default=sys.stdout,
help='Output .csv filename')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args
# gives
# Namespace(logs-dir='./', results-csv=<open file 'lool.csv', mode 'w' at 0x9020650>)
So, you should use 1'st argument to add_argument() as attribute name and metavar kwarg to set how it should look in help:
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Process some integers.')
parser.add_argument('logs_dir', metavar='logs-dir',
nargs=1,
help='Directory with .log and .log.gz files')
parser.add_argument('results_csv', metavar='results-csv',
nargs=1,
type=argparse.FileType('w'),
default=sys.stdout,
help='Output .csv filename')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args
# gives
# Namespace(logs_dir=['./'], results_csv=[<open file 'lool.csv', mode 'w' at 0xb71385f8>])

Dashes are converted to underscores:
import argparse
pa = argparse.ArgumentParser()
pa.add_argument('--foo-bar')
args = pa.parse_args(['--foo-bar', '24'])
print args # Namespace(foo_bar='24')

Concise and explicit but probably not always acceptable way would be to use vars():
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('a-b')
args = vars(parser.parse_args())
print(args['a-b'])

getattr(args, 'positional-arg')
This is another OK workaround for positional arguments:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('a-b')
args = parser.parse_args(['123'])
assert getattr(args, 'a-b') == '123'
Tested on Python 3.8.2.

I guess the last option is to change shorten option -a to --a
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Help")
parser.add_argument("--a", "--argument-option", metavar="", help="") # change here
args = parser.parse_args()
option = args.a # And here
print(option)

Arguments get mixed up with argparse

def main(argv):
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('p', 'projectType', type=str, help = 'c or c++ project type', choices=['c', 'c++'])
parser.add_argument('i', 'inputfile', type=pathlib.Path, help = 'the input file path')
parser.add_argument('o',"outputfile",type=pathlib.Path, help= 'the output file path')
parser.add_argument
args = parser.parse_args()
when i run this code on command prompt, and enter the inputfile first for example.. it gives me an error. does Argparse have an option like getopt (where i call something with a letter before inputting it so no mix up ex, '-i ...input...'). Here this option is just for optional arguments.
Is there a way for positional arguments to do that?

As per the argparse documentation you would define it as an "optional" argument but with the required flag set to true, e.g.:
parser.add_argument('-i', '--inputfile', required=True, type=pathlib.Path, help='the input file path')

nargs depending on another setting?

I'm trying to write a program that supports arbitrary bitwise opertions: AND, OR, NOT and COUNT for bitmaps. The usage is that you run program.py --and f1.bit f2.bit and it prints you the result to the stdout.
The problem is that I'd like the parser to handle all the caveats. Specifically, I'd like the nargs to depend on the mode that's set - if it's set to COUNT or NOT, exactly one file is expected, if it's set to OR or AND, expect exactly two. Here's some (non-working) example code:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import argparse
def main(mode, fnames):
pass
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-O', '--or',
nargs=2,
action='store_const', const='or'
)
args = parser.parse_args()
import pprint
pprint.pprint(args.__dict__)
#main(**args.__dict__)
And the error I'm getting:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "bitmaptool.py", line 12, in <module>
action='store_const', const='or'
File "/usr/lib/python3.7/argparse.py", line 1362, in add_argument
action = action_class(**kwargs)
TypeError: __init__() got an unexpected keyword argument 'nargs'
Commenting out nargs helps, as does leaving nargs out but commenting out action - but I want both. Do I need to implement it manually or is there a trick or another library that would let me get there?
EDIT I wanted to clarify what I'm looking for by showing what code I needed to write manually for the thing to work:
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(argument_default=argparse.SUPPRESS)
parser.add_argument('-O', '--or', nargs=2)
parser.add_argument('-A', '--and', nargs=2)
parser.add_argument('-M', '--minus', nargs=2)
parser.add_argument('-C', '--count', nargs=1)
parser.add_argument('-N', '--not', nargs=1)
parser.add_argument('-o', '--output', default='/dev/stdout')
args = parser.parse_args().__dict__
mode = None
files = []
for current_mode in ['or', 'and', 'not', 'count']:
if current_mode in args:
if mode is not None:
sys.exit('ERROR: more than one mode was specified')
mode = current_mode
files = args[mode]
if mode is None:
sys.stderr.write('ERROR: no mode was specified\n\n')
parser.print_help()
sys.exit(1)
import pprint
pprint.pprint(args)
Is there a more elegant way to get there?

store_const never gets arguments, it literally stores what you stated as const or None. Because it's a constant, not a variable. From the argparse's action documentation, ephasis mine:
'store_const' - This stores the value specified by the const keyword argument. The 'store_const' action is most commonly used with optional arguments that specify some sort of flag.
You should change the action to something that will actually store the filenames passed. As per argparse's nargs documentation and example, you actually don't need to specify action at all, default (action='store') will suffice.
Example from documentation:
>>> parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
>>> parser.add_argument('--foo', nargs=2) #this line
>>> parser.add_argument('bar', nargs=1)
>>> parser.parse_args('c --foo a b'.split())
Namespace(bar=['c'], foo=['a', 'b'])
EDIT for the edited version of the question - mutually exclusive group will make sure only one argument (from that group, of course) is specified:
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(argument_default=argparse.SUPPRESS)
parser.add_argument('-o', '--output', default='/dev/stdout')
group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
group.add_argument('-O', '--or', nargs=2)
group.add_argument('-A', '--and', nargs=2)
group.add_argument('-M', '--minus', nargs=2)
group.add_argument('-C', '--count', nargs=1)
group.add_argument('-N', '--not', nargs=1)
args = parser.parse_args().__dict__
import pprint
pprint.pprint(args)

Unable to assign default values to arguments in Python argparse

I am using Python argparse to take in parameters through the CLI. I have tried using the following but when I don't give any one of the arguments, it gives the output as None. I want then default ones to be the ones provided in const=. Please take a look.
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--input', nargs='?', const='testInput')
parser.add_argument('--target', nargs='?', const='testTarget')
parser.add_argument('--msg', nargs='?', const='helloFromTheOtherSide')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args.input
If I don't give input, it prints it as None as I said. I want it to print TestInput instead..

Use the default argument:
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('--input', nargs='?', default='testInput')
parser.add_argument('--target', nargs='?', default='testTarget')
parser.add_argument('--msg', nargs='?', default='helloFromTheOtherSide')
args = parser.parse_args()
print args.input

With
parser.add_argument('--input', nargs='?', default='testInput', const='aConst')
you have a 3 way choice
prog # input='testInput'
prog --input # input='aConst'
prog --input myfile # input='myfile'
If you don't need that aConst option, omit the nargs='?'. Since it is a flagged argument it is already optional. It doesn't need the `?'.
parser.add_argument('--input', default='testInput')

argparse coding issue

write a script that takes two optional boolean arguments,"--verbose‚" and ‚"--live", and two required string arguments, "base"and "pattern". Please set up the command line processing using argparse.
This is the code I have so far for the question, I know I am getting close but something is not quite right. Any help is much appreciated.Thanks for all the quick useful feedback.
def main():
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='')
parser.add_argument('base', type=str)
parser.add_arguemnt('--verbose', action='store_true')
parser.add_argument('pattern', type=str)
parser.add_arguemnt('--live', action='store_true')
args = parser.parse_args()
print(args.base(args.pattern))

The string arguments are not required by default, so you need to state that. Also the print statement that uses the arguments is incorrect.
#!/usr/bin/python
import argparse
if __name__=="__main__":
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='eg $python myargs.py --base arg1 --pattern arg2 [--verbose] [--live]')
parser.add_argument('--base', required=True, type=str)
parser.add_argument('--pattern', required=True, type=str)
parser.add_argument('--verbose', action='store_true')
parser.add_argument('--live', action='store_true')
args = parser.parse_args()
print "args.base=" + str(args.base)
print "args.pattern=" + str(args.pattern)
print "args.verbose=" + str(args.verbose)
print "args.live=" + str(args.live)
the #!/usr/bin/python at the top enables the script to be called directly, though python must be located there (to confirm, type $which python), and you must set the file to have execute permission ($chmod +x myargs.py)