How can I define a function with default parameter values and optional parameters in Python?

Question

I want to define a function to which the input parameters can be omitted or have a default value.

I have this function:

def nearxy(x,y,x0,y0,z):
   d         


        

Answer 1

You can't make function arguments optional in Python, but you can give them default values. So:

def nearxy(x, y, x0=0, y0=0, z=None):
    ...

That makes x0 and y0 have default values of 0, and z have a default value of None.

Assuming None makes no sense as an actual value for z, you can then add logic in the function to do something with z only if it's not None.