Functions with variable-length arguments (*args)

Flexible arguments enable you to pass a variable number of arguments to a function. In this exercise, you will practice defining a function that accepts a variable number of string arguments.

The function you will define is gibberish() which can accept a variable number of string values. Its return value is a single string composed of all the string arguments concatenated together in the order they were passed to the function call. You will call the function with a single string argument and see how the output changes with another call using more than one string argument. Recall from the previous video that, within the function definition, args is a tuple.

This exercise is part of the course

Introduction to Functions in Python

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Exercise instructions

Complete the function header with the function name gibberish. It accepts a single flexible argument *args.
Initialize a variable hodgepodge to an empty string.
Return the variable hodgepodge at the end of the function body.
Call gibberish() with the single string, "luke". Assign the result to one_word.
Hit the Submit button to call gibberish() with multiple arguments and to print the value to the Shell.

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

# Define gibberish
def ____(____):
    """Concatenate strings in *args together."""

    # Initialize an empty string: hodgepodge
    

    # Concatenate the strings in args
    for word in args:
        hodgepodge += word

    # Return hodgepodge
    ____

# Call gibberish() with one string: one_word
one_word = ____

# Call gibberish() with five strings: many_words
many_words = gibberish("luke", "leia", "han", "obi", "darth")

# Print one_word and many_words
print(one_word)
print(many_words)

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