Develop Reference

python unittest for argparse

I have a function inside a module that creates an argparse:
def get_options(prog_version='1.0', prog_usage='', misc_opts=None):
options = [] if misc_opts is None else misc_opts
parser = ArgumentParser(usage=prog_usage) if prog_usage else ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-v', '--version', action='version', version='%(prog)s {}'.format(prog_version))
parser.add_argument('-c', '--config', dest='config', required=True, help='the path to the configuration file')
for option in options:
if 'option' in option and 'destination' in option:
parser.add_argument(option['option'],
dest=option.get('destination', ''),
default=option.get('default', ''),
help=option.get('description', ''),
action=option.get('action', 'store'))
return parser.parse_args()
A sample myapp.py would be:
my_options = [
{
"option": "-s",
"destination": "remote_host",
"default": "127.0.0.1",
"description": "The remote server name or IP address",
"action": "store"
},
]
# Get Command Line Options
options = get_options(misc_opts=my_options)
print options.config
print options.remote_host
and this will be called as:
$> python myapp.py -c config.yaml
$> config.yaml
127.0.0.1
Now, I am trying to create a unit test for this function but my problem is that I can't pass command line parameters via test code.
# mytest.py
import unittest
from mymodule import get_options
class argParseTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
def test_parser(self):
options = get_options()
# ...pass the command line arguments...
self.assertEquals('config.yaml', options.config) # ofcourse this fails because I don't know how I will pass the command line arguments
My problem is that I need to pass the command line arguments to get_options() but I don't know how to do it properly.
Expected proper call: python mytest.py (-c config.yaml should be passed inside the test code somehow.)
What is "working"/not working right now:
python mytest.py -c config.yaml is also not working. Returns AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'config' since it expects me to call argParseTestCase instead. In other words, python mytest.py -c argParseTestCase "works" but would ofcourse be an return AssertionError: 'config.yaml' != 'argParseTestCase'
python mytest.py -v to run the unit test in verbose mode also fails. It returns:
test_parser (main.argParseTestCase) ... mytest.py 1.0 ERROR
ERROR: test_parser (main.argParseTestCase)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tests/unit_tests/mytest.py", line 376, in test_parser options = get_options()
File "/root/test/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mymodule.py", line 61, in get_options return parser.parse_args()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1701, in parse_args args, argv = self.parse_known_args(args, namespace)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1733, in parse_known_args namespace, args = self._parse_known_args(args, namespace)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1939, in _parse_known_args start_index = consume_optional(start_index)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1879, in consume_optional take_action(action, args, option_string)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1807, in take_action action(self, namespace, argument_values, option_string)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1022, in call parser.exit(message=formatter.format_help())
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 2362, in exit _sys.exit(status)
SystemExit: 0

I prefer explicitly passing arguments instead of relying on globally available attributes such as sys.argv (which parser.parse_args() does internally). Thus I usually use argparse by passing the list of arguments myself (to main() and subsequently get_options() and wherever you need them):
def get_options(args, prog_version='1.0', prog_usage='', misc_opts=None):
# ...
return parser.parse_args(args)
and then pass in the arguments
def main(args):
get_options(args)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main(sys.argv[1:])
that way I can replace and test any list of arguments I like
options = get_options(['-c','config.yaml'])
self.assertEquals('config.yaml', options.config)

Your error message stack is hard to read because it is in quoted form rather than code. But I think the -v argument is producing a sys.exit. version is like help - it's supposed to display a message and then exit. The -v is used by unittest, but is also read by your parser.
There is an argparse unittest module, test/test_argparse.py. You may need a development Python installation to see that. Some tests are straightforward, others use specialized testing structure. Some of that special code creates arguments in the same way you do with options.
The are two special issues:
generating the input. parse_args uses sys.argv[1:] unless its argv parameter is not None. So you can test a parser by either modifying the sys.argv list (unittest has already used your commandline values), or by passing a argv=None keyword argument into your function and on to parse_args. Trying to make a commandline meant for the unittest code to work with get_options is too complicated.
trapping the output, especially the sys.exit generated by errors. One option is to subclass ArgumentParser and give it a different error and/or exit method. Another is to wrap the function call in a try block.
unittest takes -c argument, but with a different syntax and meaning
-c, --catch Catch control-C and display results
and -v is verbose, not version.
=============
This tests the config argument (in a self contained one file form)
import unittest
import sys
#from mymodule import get_options
def get_options(argv=None, prog_version='1.0', prog_usage='', misc_opts=None):
# argv is optional test list; uses sys.argv[1:] is not provided
from argparse import ArgumentParser
options = [] if misc_opts is None else misc_opts
parser = ArgumentParser(usage=prog_usage) if prog_usage else ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-v', '--version', action='version', version='%(prog)s {}'.format(prog_version))
parser.add_argument('-c', '--config', dest='config', help='the path to the configuration file')
for option in options:
if 'option' in option and 'destination' in option:
parser.add_argument(option['option'],
dest=option.get('destination', ''),
default=option.get('default', ''),
help=option.get('description', ''),
action=option.get('action', 'store'))
args = parser.parse_args(argv)
print('args',args)
return args
class argParseTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
def test_config(self):
sys.argv[1:]=['-c','config.yaml']
options = get_options()
self.assertEquals('config.yaml', options.config)
def test_version(self):
sys.argv[1:]=['-v']
with self.assertRaises(SystemExit):
get_options()
# testing version message requires redirecting stdout
# similarly for a misc_opts test
if __name__=='__main__':
unittest.main()

Python Command Line Arguments Try/Except

I want to create a program that will take two command line arguments. The first being the name of a file to open for parsing and the second the flag -s. If the user provides the wrong number of arguments or the other argument is not -s then it will print the message "Usage: [-s] file_name" and terminate the program using exit.
Next, I want my program to attempt to open the file for reading. The program should open the file read each line and return a count of every float, integer, and other kinds of strings that are not ints or floats. However, if opening the file fails it should raise an exception and print "Unable to open [filename]" and quit using exit.
I've been looking up lots of stuff on the internet about command lines in Python but I've ended up more confused. So here's my attempt at it so far from what I've researched.
from optparse import OptionParser
def command_line():
parser = OptionParser()
parser.add_option("--file", "-s")
options, args = parser.parse_args()
if options.a and obtions.b:
parser.error("Usage: [-s] file_name")
exit
def read_file():
#Try:
#Open input file
#Except:
#print "Unable to open [filename]"
#Exit

from optparse import OptionParser
import sys,os
def command_line():
parser = OptionParser("%prog [-s] file_name")
parser.add_option("-s",dest="filename",
metavar="file_name",help="my help message")
options, args = parser.parse_args()
if not options.filename:
parser.print_help()
sys.exit()
return options.filename
def read_file(fn):
if os.path.isfile(fn):
typecount = {}
with open(fn) as f:
for line in f:
for i in line.split()
try:
t = type(eval(i))
except NameError:
t = type(i)
if t in typecount:
typecount[t] += 1
else:
typecount[t] = 1
else:
print( "Unable to open {}".format(fn))
sys.exit()
print(typecount)
read_file(command_line())
So step by step:
options.a is not defined unless you define an option --a or (preferably) set dest="a".
using the built-in parser.print_help() is better than making your own, you get -h/--help for free then.
you never called your function command_line, therefore never getting any errors, as the syntax was correct. I set the commandline to pass only the filename as a return value, but there are better ways of doing this for when you have more options/arguments.
When it comes to read_file, instead of using try-except for the file I recommend using os.path.isfile which will check whether the file exists. This does not check that the file has the right format though.
We then create a dictionary of types, then loop over all lines and evaluate objects which are separated by whitespace(space,newline,tab). If your values are separated by eg. a comma, you need to use line.split(',').
If you want to use the counts later in your script, you might want to return typecount instead of printing it.

Python: Can optparse have the ACTION attribute to act both like STORE and STORE_TRUE?

I am using optparse to get command line input.
Lets say that I am running a script demo.py and it creates some output. But unless I specify the command line input, the output is not written to a file.
I am trying to do the following:
python demo.py in command line should run the script, but not write the output anywhere.
python demo.py -o in command line should write the output to my default file name output.txt.
python demo.py -o demooutput.txt in command line should write the output to file demooutput.txt.
PS: I would not prefer to switch to argparse from optparse.

You can use optparse-callbacks to achieve this.
Here is how it wiill work for your use case.
parser.add_option("-o", action="callback", dest="output", callback=my_callback)
def my_callback(option, opt, value, parser):
if len(parser.rargs) > 0:
next_arg = parser.rargs[0]
if not next_arg.startswith("-"):
# Next argument is not another option
del parser.rargs[0]
setattr(parser.values, option.dest, next_arg)
return
# If not processed, set the default value
setattr(parser.values, option.dest, "output.txt")

I don't think there is unfortunately - the only way I can think of is hacking around the problem by adding your own logic statements. The following code should do the trick.
import re, sys
import optparse from OptionParser
usage = "usage: %prog [options] arg"
parser = OptionParser(usage)
if '-f' in argv:
a = argv.index('-f')
if (a != len(argv)-1) and re.search('[.]txt', argv[a+1]):
parser.add_option("-f", "--foo", dest="foo")
else:
parser.add_option("-f", dest="foo", action="store_true")

This doesn't answer the direct question, 'how to define an Action...', but it handles the inputs in a simple way.
Set '-o' to be 'store_true'. If True check the 'args' variable for a file name.
(options, args) = parser.parse_args()
if options.o:
if args:
dest = args[0]
else:
dest = 'output.txt'
else:
dest = ''
(In argparse the equivalent would be to define a positional argument with nargs='?'.)
If these are the only arguments, you could also get by with checking for the filename without requiring the `-o'.
Another possibility - 'store_const', with the positional 'filename' having priority:
parser = optparse.OptionParser()
parser.add_option('-o',dest='dest',action='store_const', const='output.txt', default='')
(options, args) = parser.parse_args()
if args:
options.dest = args[0]
print options

argparse.add_argument() default always used... sometimes

This simplified script is enough to cause the issue... just checking if the '-d' argument is a valid directory, supplying a default if it's not provided...
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import argparse
def valid(dir):
subdir = dir + '/Desktop'
if not os.path.exists(subdir):
raise argparse.ArgumentTypeError("%s is not a valid directory" % subdir)
return dir
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="blah blah blah")
parser.add_argument('-d', '--directory', help='directory to check', default=os.getcwd(), type=valid)
args = parser.parse_args()
And it doesn't matter what the default argument is, when I run the script it uses the default, no matter what I enter on the command line, and throws an uncaught exception as follows:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./parsertest.py", line 15, in <module>
args = parser.parse_args()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1688, in parse_args
args, argv = self.parse_known_args(args, namespace)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 1710, in parse_known_args
default = self._get_value(action, default)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/argparse.py", line 2239, in _get_value
raise ArgumentError(action, msg)
argparse.ArgumentError: argument -d/--directory: /home/users/jrice/Desktop/Desktop is not a valid directory
Runs fine, and by fine I mean, handles the ArgumentTypeError as and when it should, just printing the msg when if I do the following:
Remove the 'default=' argument
Do not append '/Desktop' to dir, so subdir = dir, or just check dir itself
Run the script from my home directory!?!?
Elaboration: If I do any of the above, even if '-d' isn't valid, everything is fine. This is the output, which is what I want.
>./Desktop/parsertest.py -d blah
usage: parsertest.py [-h] [-d DIRECTORY]
parsertest.py: error: argument -d/--directory: blah/Desktop is not a valid directory
why should os.getcwd() + '/Desktop' be any different?

I believe your "type checking" is too aggressive. You treat a non-existing directory as an invalid type, which is not the way argparse has been thought. In your case, the default value might not be a "valid type" which confuses argparse. Check out the following code and its output:
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import argparse
def valid(dir):
print "Checking " + dir
subdir = dir + '/Desktop'
#if not os.path.exists(subdir):
# raise argparse.ArgumentTypeError("%s is not a valid directory" % subdir)
return dir
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="blah blah blah")
parser.add_argument('-d', '--directory', help='directory to check', type=valid, default=os.getcwd())
args = parser.parse_args()
Executing it from /home/user/Desktop with -d /home/user gives:
Checking /home/user/Desktop
Checking /home/user
As you can see, argparse first converts the default value and only then the command-line given value.
To solve the above issue, either make sure that the default value is always a "valid type" or that you check the directory after argparse is done.

Argparse attempts to convert the default argument to whatever type was given to it.
import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="blah blah blah")
parser.add_argument('-i',default="1",type=int)
args = parser.parse_args([])
print args # Namespace(i=1)
print type(args.i) # <type 'int'>
The reason for this design choice is a little weird to me, but it is probably so that you can pass strings to default just as it would get them on the commandline and then the help will be formatted properly.
Note I don't really like passing validation code to the type keyword argument even though they do it in the documentation. That argument is to convert the input string into some other type. If you really want to do the validation as you parse, you should consider using a custom Action, but for this example, it's probably just easiest to do:
#...snip...
parser.add_argument('-d', '--directory', help='directory to check')
args = parser.parse_args()
args.directory = valid(args.directory if args.directory is not None else os.getcwd())
#the following should work too.
#args.directory = valid(args.directory if args.directory else os.getcwd())

How to read/process command line arguments?

In Python, how can we find out the command line arguments that were provided for a script, and process them?
For some more specific examples, see Implementing a "[command] [action] [parameter]" style command-line interfaces? and How do I format positional argument help using Python's optparse?.

import sys
print("\n".join(sys.argv))
sys.argv is a list that contains all the arguments passed to the script on the command line. sys.argv[0] is the script name.
Basically,
import sys
print(sys.argv[1:])

The canonical solution in the standard library is argparse (docs):
Here is an example:
from argparse import ArgumentParser
parser = ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("-f", "--file", dest="filename",
help="write report to FILE", metavar="FILE")
parser.add_argument("-q", "--quiet",
action="store_false", dest="verbose", default=True,
help="don't print status messages to stdout")
args = parser.parse_args()
argparse supports (among other things):
Multiple options in any order.
Short and long options.
Default values.
Generation of a usage help message.

Just going around evangelizing for argparse which is better for these reasons.. essentially:
(copied from the link)
argparse module can handle positional
and optional arguments, while
optparse can handle only optional
arguments
argparse isn’t dogmatic about
what your command line interface
should look like - options like -file
or /file are supported, as are
required options. Optparse refuses to
support these features, preferring
purity over practicality
argparse produces more
informative usage messages, including
command-line usage determined from
your arguments, and help messages for
both positional and optional
arguments. The optparse module
requires you to write your own usage
string, and has no way to display
help for positional arguments.
argparse supports action that
consume a variable number of
command-line args, while optparse
requires that the exact number of
arguments (e.g. 1, 2, or 3) be known
in advance
argparse supports parsers that
dispatch to sub-commands, while
optparse requires setting
allow_interspersed_args and doing the
parser dispatch manually
And my personal favorite:
argparse allows the type and
action parameters to add_argument()
to be specified with simple
callables, while optparse requires
hacking class attributes like
STORE_ACTIONS or CHECK_METHODS to get
proper argument checking

There is also argparse stdlib module (an "impovement" on stdlib's optparse module). Example from the introduction to argparse:
# script.py
import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
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)')
args = parser.parse_args()
print(args.accumulate(args.integers))
Usage:
$ script.py 1 2 3 4
4
$ script.py --sum 1 2 3 4
10

If you need something fast and not very flexible
main.py:
import sys
first_name = sys.argv[1]
last_name = sys.argv[2]
print("Hello " + first_name + " " + last_name)
Then run python main.py James Smith
to produce the following output:
Hello James Smith

The docopt library is really slick. It builds an argument dict from the usage string for your app.
Eg from the docopt readme:
"""Naval Fate.
Usage:
naval_fate.py ship new <name>...
naval_fate.py ship <name> move <x> <y> [--speed=<kn>]
naval_fate.py ship shoot <x> <y>
naval_fate.py mine (set|remove) <x> <y> [--moored | --drifting]
naval_fate.py (-h | --help)
naval_fate.py --version
Options:
-h --help Show this screen.
--version Show version.
--speed=<kn> Speed in knots [default: 10].
--moored Moored (anchored) mine.
--drifting Drifting mine.
"""
from docopt import docopt
if __name__ == '__main__':
arguments = docopt(__doc__, version='Naval Fate 2.0')
print(arguments)

One way to do it is using sys.argv. This will print the script name as the first argument and all the other parameters that you pass to it.
import sys
for arg in sys.argv:
print arg

#set default args as -h , if no args:
if len(sys.argv) == 1: sys.argv[1:] = ["-h"]

I use optparse myself, but really like the direction Simon Willison is taking with his recently introduced optfunc library. It works by:
"introspecting a function
definition (including its arguments
and their default values) and using
that to construct a command line
argument parser."
So, for example, this function definition:
def geocode(s, api_key='', geocoder='google', list_geocoders=False):
is turned into this optparse help text:
Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-l, --list-geocoders
-a API_KEY, --api-key=API_KEY
-g GEOCODER, --geocoder=GEOCODER

I like getopt from stdlib, eg:
try:
opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], 'h', ['help'])
except getopt.GetoptError, err:
usage(err)
for opt, arg in opts:
if opt in ('-h', '--help'):
usage()
if len(args) != 1:
usage("specify thing...")
Lately I have been wrapping something similiar to this to make things less verbose (eg; making "-h" implicit).

As you can see optparse "The optparse module is deprecated with and will not be developed further; development will continue with the argparse module."

Pocoo's click is more intuitive, requires less boilerplate, and is at least as powerful as argparse.
The only weakness I've encountered so far is that you can't do much customization to help pages, but that usually isn't a requirement and docopt seems like the clear choice when it is.

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 Python code above is saved into a file called prog.py
$ python prog.py -h
Ref-link: https://docs.python.org/3.3/library/argparse.html

You may be interested in a little Python module I wrote to make handling of command line arguments even easier (open source and free to use) - Commando

Yet another option is argh. It builds on argparse, and lets you write things like:
import argh
# declaring:
def echo(text):
"Returns given word as is."
return text
def greet(name, greeting='Hello'):
"Greets the user with given name. The greeting is customizable."
return greeting + ', ' + name
# assembling:
parser = argh.ArghParser()
parser.add_commands([echo, greet])
# dispatching:
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser.dispatch()
It will automatically generate help and so on, and you can use decorators to provide extra guidance on how the arg-parsing should work.

I recommend looking at docopt as a simple alternative to these others.
docopt is a new project that works by parsing your --help usage message rather than requiring you to implement everything yourself. You just have to put your usage message in the POSIX format.

Also with python3 you might find convenient to use Extended Iterable Unpacking to handle optional positional arguments without additional dependencies:
try:
_, arg1, arg2, arg3, *_ = sys.argv + [None] * 2
except ValueError:
print("Not enough arguments", file=sys.stderr) # unhandled exception traceback is meaningful enough also
exit(-1)
The above argv unpack makes arg2 and arg3 "optional" - if they are not specified in argv, they will be None, while if the first is not specified, ValueError will be thouwn:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
_, arg1, arg2, arg3, *_ = sys.argv + [None] * 2
ValueError: not enough values to unpack (expected at least 4, got 3)

My solution is entrypoint2. Example:
from entrypoint2 import entrypoint
#entrypoint
def add(file, quiet=True):
''' This function writes report.
:param file: write report to FILE
:param quiet: don't print status messages to stdout
'''
print file,quiet
help text:
usage: report.py [-h] [-q] [--debug] file
This function writes report.
positional arguments:
file write report to FILE
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-q, --quiet don't print status messages to stdout
--debug set logging level to DEBUG

import sys
# Command line arguments are stored into sys.argv
# print(sys.argv[1:])
# I used the slice [1:] to print all the elements except the first
# This because the first element of sys.argv is the program name
# So the first argument is sys.argv[1], the second is sys.argv[2] ecc
print("File name: " + sys.argv[0])
print("Arguments:")
for i in sys.argv[1:]:
print(i)
Let's name this file command_line.py and let's run it:
C:\Users\simone> python command_line.py arg1 arg2 arg3 ecc
File name: command_line.py
Arguments:
arg1
arg2
arg3
ecc
Now let's write a simple program, sum.py:
import sys
try:
print(sum(map(float, sys.argv[1:])))
except:
print("An error has occurred")
Result:
C:\Users\simone> python sum.py 10 4 6 3
23

This handles simple switches, value switches with optional alternative flags.
import sys
# [IN] argv - array of args
# [IN] switch - switch to seek
# [IN] val - expecting value
# [IN] alt - switch alternative
# returns value or True if val not expected
def parse_cmd(argv,switch,val=None,alt=None):
for idx, x in enumerate(argv):
if x == switch or x == alt:
if val:
if len(argv) > (idx+1):
if not argv[idx+1].startswith('-'):
return argv[idx+1]
else:
return True
//expecting a value for -i
i = parse_cmd(sys.argv[1:],"-i", True, "--input")
//no value needed for -p
p = parse_cmd(sys.argv[1:],"-p")

Several of our biotechnology clients have posed these two questions recently:
How can we execute a Python script as a command?
How can we pass input values to a Python script when it is executed as a command?
I have included a Python script below which I believe answers both questions. Let's assume the following Python script is saved in the file test.py:
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# file name: test.py
#
# input values: data - location of data to be processed
# date - date data were delivered for processing
# study - name of the study where data originated
# logs - location where log files should be written
#
# macOS usage:
#
# python3 test.py "/Users/lawrence/data" "20220518" "XYZ123" "/Users/lawrence/logs"
#
# Windows usage:
#
# python test.py "D:\data" "20220518" "XYZ123" "D:\logs"
#
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# import needed modules...
#
import sys
import datetime
def main(argv):
#
# print message that process is starting...
#
print("test process starting at", datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d %H:%M"))
#
# set local values from input values...
#
data = sys.argv[1]
date = sys.argv[2]
study = sys.argv[3]
logs = sys.argv[4]
#
# print input arguments...
#
print("data value is", data)
print("date value is", date)
print("study value is", study)
print("logs value is", logs)
#
# print message that process is ending...
#
print("test process ending at", datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d %H:%M"))
#
# call main() to begin processing...
#
if __name__ == '__main__':
main(sys.argv)
The script can be executed on a macOS computer in a Terminal shell as shown below and the results will be printed to standard output (be sure the current directory includes the test.py file):
$ python3 test.py "/Users/lawrence/data" "20220518" "XYZ123" "/Users/lawrence/logs"
test process starting at 20220518 16:51
data value is /Users/lawrence/data
date value is 20220518
study value is XYZ123
logs value is /Users/lawrence/logs
test process ending at 20220518 16:51
The script can also be executed on a Windows computer in a Command Prompt as shown below and the results will be printed to standard output (be sure the current directory includes the test.py file):
D:\scripts>python test.py "D:\data" "20220518" "XYZ123" "D:\logs"
test process starting at 20220518 17:20
data value is D:\data
date value is 20220518
study value is XYZ123
logs value is D:\logs
test process ending at 20220518 17:20
This script answers both questions posed above and is a good starting point for developing scripts that will be executed as commands with input values.

Reason for the new answer:
Existing answers specify multiple options.
Standard option is to use argparse, a few answers provided examples from the documentation, and one answer suggested the advantage of it. But all fail to explain the answer adequately/clearly to the actual question by OP, at least for newbies.
An example of argparse:
import argparse
def load_config(conf_file):
pass
if __name__ == '__main__':
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
//Specifies one argument from the command line
//You can have any number of arguments like this
parser.add_argument("conf_file", help="configuration file for the application")
args = parser.parse_args()
config = load_config(args.conf_file)
Above program expects a config file as an argument. If you provide it, it will execute happily. If not, it will print the following
usage: test.py [-h] conf_file
test.py: error: the following arguments are required: conf_file
You can have the option to specify if the argument is optional.
You can specify the expected type for the argument using type key
parser.add_argument("age", type=int, help="age of the person")
You can specify default value for the arguments by specifying default key
This document will help you to understand it to an extent.