Question

maybe this question is a little basic, but I’m reading the official docs in python:

ZipFile.extractall([path[, members[, pwd]]])

But I don’t understand what the [] means?

Thanks,

Answer 1

[] means that these are optional arguments that can be supplied to the function. The documentation will mention default values used otherwise.

Simple example using open():

open(name[, mode[, buffering]])

The filename is required, but mode and buffering are optional. The default mode for opening a file is read, so open(filename, 'r') is equivalent to open(filename). For buffering it states: “If omitted, the system default is used”