What is “argv”, and what does it do?

Question

argv

What on Earth is it!?

Edit: If you can, will you please write a line or two and explain how it works?

Answer 1

If you have an executable python script and call it with arguments like this:

myscript.py -a -b --input myfile --another_argument

then sys.argv is a list containing:

['myscript.py', '-a', '-b', '--input', 'myfile', '--another_argument']

Using it is the only way to access these arguments, and that is its main use. However, most applications use libraries such as the argparse module to access this information without needing to use sys.argv directly.