Unpack without using * (asterisk)

Question

If I want to keep things functional, and do not want to use * in the middle, then what is the equivalent substitute function? for example,

import operator as op
print(op.eq(*map(str.upper, ['a', 'A'])))

how do I avoid using * here?

I created a function, like,

def unpack(args):
  return *args

but it gives syntax error, print(*args) works but return fails

Answer 1

One way to achieve this is by creating a function named apply.

def apply(func, args):
    return func(*args)

apply(op.eq, map(str.upper, ['a', 'A']))