Can Someone Please Explain To Me The Purpose Of The Asterisk In Python?

For instance, can someone please explain to me the purpose of the asterisk in line 2 below? m = Basemap(projection='merc', llcrnrlon=lon.min(), urcrnrlon=lon.max(), llcrnrlat=lat.

Solution 1:

It means it will "expand" a collection in its individual elements.

So, suppose a function needs many arguments, and you have these arguments in a collection. Since you could not pass the collection itself (which would count as a single argument), you use the * so the collection is expanded and passed as its individual arguments to the function.

Solution 2:

from the documentation:

An asterisk * denotes iterable unpacking. Its operand must be an iterable. The iterable is expanded into a sequence of items, which are included in the new tuple, list, or set, at the site of the unpacking.