hello_world

Simple example: Hello World

These two scripts:

• examples/hello_world/with_argbind.py
• examples/hello_world/with_argparse.py

compare building up a simple script using argparse vs argbind. Each script has a single function hello, which prints hello [name], where name can be controlled from the command line. The help text looks a bit different:

ArgParse version

❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argparse.py -h
usage: with_argparse.py [-h] [--name NAME]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help   show this help message and exit
  --name NAME  Who you're saying hello to.

You can do:

❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argparse.py --name test
Hello test

ArgBind version

❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argbind.py -h
usage: with_argbind.py [-h] [--args.save ARGS.SAVE] [--args.load ARGS.LOAD] [--args.debug ARGS.DEBUG] [--hello.name HELLO.NAME]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --args.save ARGS.SAVE
                        Path to save all arguments used to run script to.
  --args.load ARGS.LOAD
                        Path to load arguments from, stored as a .yml file.
  --args.debug ARGS.DEBUG
                        Print arguments as they are passed to each function.

Generated arguments for function hello:
  Say hello to someone.

  --hello.name HELLO.NAME
                        Who you're saying hello to, by default 'world'

You'll notice a few differences. The first is that the argument on the command line has changed from name to hello.name. ArgBind always generates command line arguments of the form function_name.function_arg. There are some other additional arguments:

• args.save: This allows us to save the arguments that were used to call the scripts.
• args.load: Arguments can be loaded from a .yml file rather than from command line.
• args.debug: When functions are called, the arguments that are passed to them are printed.

Example usage:

❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argparse.py --name test
Hello test
❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argbind.py --hello.name test --args.save /tmp/saved_args.yml
Hello test
❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argbind.py --args.load /tmp/saved_args.yml
Hello test

ArgBind with positional arguments

Positional arguments work if the function is bound with positional=True:

@argbind.bind(positional=True)
def hello(
    name : str,
    email : str,
    notes : str = "notes"
):
    """Say hello to someone.

    Parameters
    ----------
    name : str
        Who you're saying hello to.
    email : str
        The email of the person.
    notes : str, optional
        Some optional notes about the person.
    """
    print("Hello " + name + ' at ' + email)
    print(f"About {name}: {notes}")

Refer to the help text for the order of positional arguments in your program. Note that functions with positional arguments shouldn't have scopes, as every scope added to the function will add positional arguments. ArgBind removes scoping patterns if both positional is set True, and scoping patterns are added. A warning is thrown in these cases.

❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argbind_positional.py -h
usage: with_argbind_positional.py [-h] [--args.save ARGS.SAVE] [--args.load ARGS.LOAD] [--args.debug ARGS.DEBUG] [--hello.notes HELLO.NOTES] hello.name hello.email

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --args.save ARGS.SAVE
                        Path to save all arguments used to run script to.
  --args.load ARGS.LOAD
                        Path to load arguments from, stored as a .yml file.
  --args.debug ARGS.DEBUG
                        Print arguments as they are passed to each function.

Generated arguments for function hello:
  Say hello to someone.

  hello.name            Who you're saying hello to.
  hello.email           The email of the person.
  --hello.notes HELLO.NOTES
                        Some optional notes about the person.

Example usage:

❯ python examples/hello_world/with_argbind_positional.py bob bob@abc.com --hello.notes "Some notes about Bob"
Hello bob at bob@abc.com
About bob: Some notes about Bob