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6.20.2.1 The store action

The action tells `optparse` what to do when it sees one of the option strings for this option on the command-line. For example, the action store means: take the next argument (or the remainder of the current argument), ensure that it is of the correct type, and store it to your chosen destination.

For example, let's fill in the ``...'' of that last option:

    parser.add_option("-f", "--file",
                      action="store", type="string", dest="filename")

Now let's make up a fake command-line and ask `optparse` to parse it:

    args = ["-f", "foo.txt"]
    (options, args) = parser.parse_args(args)

(Note that if you don't pass an argument list to `parse_args()`, it automatically uses `sys.argv[1:]`.)

When `optparse` sees the -f, it consumes the next argument--`foo.txt`--and stores it in the `filename` attribute of a special object. That object is the first return value from `parse_args()`, so:

    print options.filename

will print `foo.txt`.

Other option types supported by `optparse` are `int` and `float`. Here's an option that expects an integer argument:

    parser.add_option("-n", type="int", dest="num")

This example doesn't provide a long option, which is perfectly acceptable. It also doesn't specify the action--it defaults to ``store''.

Let's parse another fake command-line. This time, we'll jam the option argument right up against the option, since -n42 (one argument) is equivalent to -n 42 (two arguments).

    (options, args) = parser.parse_args(["-n42"])
    print options.num

This prints `42`.

Trying out the ``float'' type is left as an exercise for the reader.

If you don't specify a type, `optparse` assumes ``string''. Combined with the fact that the default action is ``store'', that means our first example can be a lot shorter:

    parser.add_option("-f", "--file", dest="filename")

If you don't supply a destination, `optparse` figures out a sensible default from the option strings: if the first long option string is --foo-bar, then the default destination is `foo_bar`. If there are no long option strings, `optparse` looks at the first short option: the default destination for -f is `f`.

Adding types is fairly easy; please refer to section 6.20.5, ``Adding new types.''