How to apply optparse to parse a group of parameters

Question

In python we use optparse to format our CLI parameters. However, I don't know how to apply add_option() on supporting combined or a groups of arguments.

For example:

1) How can my CLI support combined paramters:

eg:

python test.py -ah

actually, this command can expand to:

python test.py -a -h

2) How can my CLI support groups parameters:

eg:

python test.py -f f1.txt f2.txt f3.txt

in this example: space is the separator, we can also define comma also as the separator.

I don't know whether optparse can support.

Answer 1

You should not be using optparse for new projects. According to the docs:

Deprecated since version 2.7: The optparse module is deprecated and will not be developed further; development will continue with the argparse module.

The functionality you are looking for is built into argparse:

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser('Test program')
parser.add_argument('-a', action='store_true')
parser.add_argument('-v', action='store_true')
parser.add_argument('-f', nargs='+')
args = parser.parse_args()

print(args)

This yields:

$ python parser.py -av -f f1.txt f2.txt f3.txt
Namespace(a=True, f=['f1.txt', 'f2.txt', 'f3.txt'], v=True)