Learn

Working with **kwargs looks very similar to its *args counterpart. Since ** generates a standard dictionary, we can use iteration just like we did earlier by taking advantage of the .values() method. Here is an example:

def print_data(**data):
  for arg in data.values():
    print(arg)

print_data(a='arg1', b=True, c=100)

Would output:

arg1
True
100

We can also combine our use of ** with regular positional arguments. However, Python requires that all positional arguments come first in our function definition. Let’s examine how this works:

def print_data(positional_arg, **data):
  print(positional_arg)
  for arg in data.values():
    print(arg)

print_data('position 1', a='arg1', b=True, c=100)

Would output:

position 1
arg1
True
100

If we were to switch the position of positional_arg to come after **data, we would be met with a SyntaxError.

Let’s expand our restaurant application from the previous exercises to apply the flexibility of using **kwargs in our functions.

Instructions

In the last exercise, we saw how using ** allowed us to capture different food items that a table will order. In the next few checkpoints, we will finish implementing the functionality of our assign_food_items() function.

Take some time to get reacquainted with the program. Note the changes in the assign_food_items() function.

Run the code to move on!

Unfortunately, when we originally implemented assign_food_items we did not assign the values we capture into our tables dictionary.

Adjust the function definition of assign_food_items():

Add a positional parameter called table_number followed by the **order_items parameter we already defined.
Uncomment the 2 lines inside the function.

Adding the parameter and uncommenting the lines will now allow us to assign the food to a specific table.

Great! Now that we have the base functionality set up, let’s give it a test run. Luckily a new customer named Douglas just came in and is ready to place an order.

Under print('\n --- tables after update --- \n'), call the assign_food_items() function with the following arguments:

A positional argument table_number with the value 2
A keyword argument food with the value 'Seabass, Gnocchi, Pizza'
A keyword argument drinks with the value 'Margarita, Water'

Print tables to see the change!

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