How to use python argparse with args other than sys.argv?

Question

I\'ve been all over the documentation and it seems like there\'s no way to do it, but:

Is there a way to use argparse with any list of strings, instead of only with

Answer 1

Just change the script to default to sys.argv[1:] and parse arguments omitting the first one (which is the name of the invoked command)

import argparse,sys

def main(argv=sys.argv[1:]):
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    # Do some argument parsing
    args = parser.parse_args(argv)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Or, if you cannot omit the first argument:

import argparse,sys

def main(args=None):
    # if None passed, uses sys.argv[1:], else use custom args
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("--level", type=int)
    args = parser.parse_args(args)

    # Do some argument parsing

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Last one: if you cannot change the called program, you can still do something

Let's suppose the program you cannot change is called argtest.py (I added a call to print arguments)

Then just change the local argv value of the argtest.sys module:

import argtest
argtest.sys.argv=["dummy","foo","bar"]
argtest.main()

output:

['dummy', 'foo', 'bar']    

Answer 2

You can pass a list of strings to parse_args:

parser.parse_args(['--foo', 'FOO'])