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The *args and **kwargs is a common idiom to allow arbitrary number of arguments to functions as described in the section more on defining functions in the Python documentation.

The *args will give you all function parameters as a tuple:

def foo(*args):
    for a in args:
        print(a)        

foo(1)
# 1

foo(1,2,3)
# 1
# 2
# 3

The **kwargs will give you all keyword arguments except for those corresponding to a formal parameter as a dictionary.

def foo(kind, *args, **kwargs):
   pass

def foo(a, b, c):
    print(a, b, c)

obj = {'b':10, 'c':'lee'}

foo(100,**obj)
# 100 10 lee

def foo(bar, lee):
    print(bar, lee)

l = [1,2]

foo(*l)
# 1 2

first, *rest = [1,2,3,4]
first, *l, last = [1,2,3,4]

Also Python 3 adds new semantic (refer PEP 3102):

def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
    pass

For example the following works in python 3 but not python 2:

>>> x = [1, 2]
>>> [*x]
[1, 2]
>>> [*x, 3, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 4]

>>> x = {1:1, 2:2}
>>> x
{1: 1, 2: 2}
>>> {**x, 3:3, 4:4}
{1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: 4}

• A Python dict, semantically used for keyword argument passing, are arbitrarily ordered. However, in Python 3.6, keyword arguments are guaranteed to remember insertion order.
• "The order of elements in **kwargs now corresponds to the order in which keyword arguments were passed to the function." - What’s New In Python 3.6
• In fact, all dicts in CPython 3.6 will remember insertion order as an implementation detail, this becomes standard in Python 3.7.

The *args and **kwargs are common idioms to allow an arbitrary number of arguments to functions, as described in the section more on defining functions in the Python tutorial.

The *args will give you all positional arguments as a tuple:

def foo(*args):
    for a in args:
        print(a)        

foo(1)
# 1

foo(1, 2, 3)
# 1
# 2
# 3

The **kwargs will give you all keyword arguments as a dictionary:

def foo(kind, *args, bar=None, **kwargs):
    print(kind, args, bar, kwargs)

foo(123, 'a', 'b', apple='red')
# 123 ('a', 'b') None {'apple': 'red'}

def foo(a, b, c):
    print(a, b, c)

obj = {'b':10, 'c':'lee'}

foo(100, **obj)
# 100 10 lee

def foo(bar, lee):
    print(bar, lee)

baz = [1, 2]

foo(*baz)
# 1 2

first, *rest = [1, 2, 3, 4]
# first = 1
# rest = [2, 3, 4]

Also Python 3 adds a new semantic (refer PEP 3102):

def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
    pass

A Python dict, semantically used for keyword argument passing, is arbitrarily ordered. However, in Python 3.6+, keyword arguments are guaranteed to remember insertion order. "The order of elements in **kwargs now corresponds to the order in which keyword arguments were passed to the function." - What’s New In Python 3.6. In fact, all dicts in CPython 3.6 will remember insertion order as an implementation detail, and this becomes standard in Python 3.7.

def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
    pass
 
The following works in python 3 not python 2:
>>> x = [1, 2]
>>> [*x]
[1, 2]
>>> [*x, 3, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 4]

>>> x = {1:1, 2:2}
>>> x
{1: 1, 2: 2}
>>> {**x, 3:3, 4:4}
{1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: 4}

def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
    pass

For example the following works in python 3 but not python 2:

>>> x = [1, 2]
>>> [*x]
[1, 2]
>>> [*x, 3, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 4]

>>> x = {1:1, 2:2}
>>> x
{1: 1, 2: 2}
>>> {**x, 3:3, 4:4}
{1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: 4}

def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
    pass

def func(arg1, arg2, arg3, *, kwarg1, kwarg2):
    pass 

The following works in python 3 not python 2:
>>> x = [1, 2]
>>> [*x]
[1, 2]
>>> [*x, 3, 4]
[1, 2, 3, 4]

>>> x = {1:1, 2:2}
>>> x
{1: 1, 2: 2}
>>> {**x, 3:3, 4:4}
{1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3, 4: 4}