Call function without optional arguments if they are None

Question

There\'s a function which takes optional arguments.

def alpha(p1=\"foo\", p2=\"bar\"):
     print(\'{0},{1}\'.format(p1, p2))

Let me iterat

Answer 1

Not a direct answer, but I think this is worth considering:

See if you can break your function into several functions, neither of which has any default arguments. Factor any shared functionality out to a function you designate as internal.

def alpha():
    _omega('foo', 'bar')

def beta(p1):
    _omega(p1, 'bar')

def _omega(p1, p2):
     print('{0},{1}'.format(p1, p2))

This works well when the extra arguments trigger "extra" functionality, as it may allow you to give the functions more descriptive names.

Functions with boolean arguments with True and/or False defaults frequently benefit from this type of approach.