Inside a function header:
* collects all the positional arguments in a tuple.
** collects all the keyword arguments in a dictionary.
>>> def functionA(*a, **kw):
print(a)
print(kw)
>>> functionA(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, a=2, b=3, c=5)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
{'a': 2, 'c': 5, 'b': 3}
In a function call:
* unpacks a list or tuple into position arguments.
** unpacks a dictionary into keyword arguments.
>>> lis=[1, 2, 3, 4]
>>> dic={'a': 10, 'b':20}
>>> functionA(*lis, **dic) #it is similar to functionA(1, 2, 3, 4, a=10, b=20)
(1, 2, 3, 4)
{'a': 10, 'b': 20}