Question

Currently my code looks like this. It allows me to parse multiple parameters my program script gets. Is there a different way that is closer to ‘best practices’? I haven’t seen code actually using the output of argparse, only how to set it up.

def useArguments():
    x = 0
    while x <= 5:
        if x == 0:                      
            if args.getweather != None:
                getWeather(args.getweather)
        if x == 1:
            if args.post != None:
                post(args.post)
        if x == 2:
            if args.custompost != None:
                custompost(args.custompost)
        if x == 3:
            if args.list != None:
                listAccounts(args.list)
        if x == 4:
            if args.add != None:
                addAccount(args.add[0])
        if x == 5:
            if args.edit != None:
                editAccount(args.edit[0])
        x = x + 1    


if __name__ == '__main__':

    updateConfig()

    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Post Yahoo weather to Twitter.', epilog="Report any bugs to [e-mail]", prog='Program')

    parser.add_argument('-a', '--add', nargs=1, help='Add a new account. Use the desired account name as an argument.')
    parser.add_argument('-e', '--edit', nargs=1, choices=accountListSTR[:-1], help='Edit an account. Use the desired account name as an argument.')
    parser.add_argument('-g', '--getweather', nargs='*', choices=accountListSTR, help='Get weather and post here. Specify account(s) as argument. Use "all" for all accounts. If you specify multiple accounts, separate by a space NOT a comma.')
    parser.add_argument('-p', '--post', nargs='*', choices=accountListSTR, help='Post weather to Twitter. Specify account(s) as argument. Use "all" for all accounts. If you specify multiple accounts, separate by a space NOT a comma.')
    parser.add_argument('-c', '--custompost', nargs=2, help='Post a custom message. Specify an account then type the message. Make sure you use "" around the message. Use "all" for all accounts.')
    parser.add_argument('-l', '--list', action='store_const', const='all', help='List all accounts.')
    parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version='%(prog)s 0.3.3')

    args = parser.parse_args()

    useArguments()

Answer 1

You could supply a custom action for an argument by, and I quote:

passing an object that implements the
Action API. The easiest way to do this
is to extend argparse.Action,
supplying an appropriate __call__
method. The __call__ method should
accept four parameters:

1. parser: The ArgumentParser object which contains this action.
2. namespace: The namespace object that will be returned by parse_args(). Most actions add an attribute to this object.
3. values: The associated command-line args, with any type-conversions applied.(Type-conversions are specified with the type keyword argument to add_argument().
4. option_string: The option string that was used to invoke this action. The option_string argument is optional, and will be absent if the action is associated with a positional argument.