When working with Python scripts that require arguments, it can be useful to have a calculator that calculates the average of those arguments. In this article, we will explore three different ways to solve this problem.

Option 1: Using the sys module

The sys module in Python provides access to some variables used or maintained by the interpreter and to functions that interact with the interpreter. We can use this module to access the command-line arguments passed to our script.

import sys

args = sys.argv[1:]
total = sum(map(int, args))
average = total / len(args)

print("Average:", average)

In this solution, we import the sys module and use the argv attribute to access the command-line arguments. We slice the list to exclude the script name itself. Then, we convert the arguments to integers using the map function and calculate the total using the sum function. Finally, we divide the total by the number of arguments to get the average.

Option 2: Using argparse

The argparse module provides a more powerful and flexible way to parse command-line arguments in Python. It allows us to define the arguments our script expects and handles the parsing for us.

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("numbers", nargs="+", type=int)
args = parser.parse_args()

total = sum(args.numbers)
average = total / len(args.numbers)

print("Average:", average)

In this solution, we create an instance of the ArgumentParser class and define a positional argument called “numbers” that accepts one or more integers. We then use the parse_args method to parse the command-line arguments and store them in the args variable. We calculate the total and average in a similar way as in the previous solution.

Option 3: Using input

If you prefer to interactively enter the numbers instead of passing them as command-line arguments, you can use the input function to prompt the user for input.

numbers = input("Enter numbers separated by spaces: ").split()
numbers = list(map(int, numbers))

total = sum(numbers)
average = total / len(numbers)

print("Average:", average)

In this solution, we use the input function to prompt the user for input. The numbers are entered as a space-separated string, which we split into a list. We then convert the list of strings to a list of integers using the map function. Finally, we calculate the total and average as before.

After exploring these three options, it is clear that using argparse provides the most robust and flexible solution. It allows for better control over the expected input and handles the parsing automatically. Therefore, option 2 using argparse is the recommended approach for calculating the average of Python scripts with arguments.