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### The `apply()` Function

The `apply(``func` `[,` `args` `[,` `kwargs` `]])` function is used to invoke a function indirectly where the arguments have been constructed in the form of a tuple or dictionary. `args` is a tuple containing the positional argument to be supplied to the function. If omitted, no arguments are passed. `kwargs` is a dictionary containing keyword arguments. The following statements produce identical results:

    foo(3,"x", name='Dave', id=12345)
    apply(foo, (3,"x"), { 'name': 'Dave', 'id': 12345 })

In older versions of Python, `apply()` was the only mechanism for calling a function in which the arguments were contained in a tuple or dictionary. This capability is now handled by the following syntax:

    a = (3,"x")
    b = { 'name' : 'Dave', 'id': 12345 }
    foo(*a,**b)     # Same as code above

| Last updated on 3/28/2002 Python Essential Reference, Second Edition, © 2002 New Riders Publishing

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