Aparse

Aparse is a python argparse extension with support for typing. It has support for argparse and click libraries. It uses function signatures to automatically register arguments to parsers. Please refer to the documentation.

The following features are currently supported:

• Arguments with int, float, str, bool values both with and without default value.
• List of int, float, str, bool types.
• Types with from_str method.
• dataclass arguments, where the dataclass is expanded into individual parameters
• Multi-level dataclass arguments.
• argparse and click libraries are fully supported.
• For argparse, when classes are used, it supports traversing inheritance chain.
• For argparse, custom prefixes can be used for groups of parameters.
• Callbacks before and after arguments are parsed.
• Conditional arguments, where the type of arguments depends on the value of another argument.

Why aparse

Why not argparse? Aparse does not force you to replace your argparse code. In fact, it was designed to extend argparse. You can combine the original argparse code and in some parts of the code, you can let aparse generate the arguments automatically.

Furthermore, aparse allows you to use conditional parameter parsing, which cannot be achieved with pure argparse.

Why not click? Same as with argparse, aparse extends click in such a way, that you can combine the original code with aparse. With aparse, you don't have to decorate your commands with all options, but you can let aparse manage them for you.

Why not docopt? With docopt you have to keep documentation in sync with your code. Aparse uses the signatures instead, which allows you to validate your code with a typechecker.

Installation

Install the library from pip:

$ pip install aparse

Getting started

Using argparse library

Extend a function with @add_argparse_arguments decorator to add arguments automatically:

import argparse
from aparse import add_argparse_arguments

@add_argparse_arguments()
def example(arg1: str, arg2: int = 5):
    pass

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser = example.add_argparse_arguments(parser)
args = parser.parse_args()

# Call example with args
example.from_argparse_arguments(args)

Extend a class with @add_argparse_arguments decorator to construct it automatically:

import argparse
from aparse import add_argparse_arguments

@add_argparse_arguments()
class Example:
    def __init__(self, arg1: str, arg2: int = 5):
        pass

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser = Example.add_argparse_arguments(parser)
args = parser.parse_args()

# Construct Example with args
instance = Example.from_argparse_arguments(args)

Using click library

Import aparse.click instead of click and let aparse register all the arguments and options:

# python main.py --arg1 test --arg2 4

from aparse import click

@click.command()
def example(arg1: str, arg2: int = 5):
    pass

example()

When using click.groups:

# python main.py example --arg1 test --arg2 4

from aparse import click

@click.group()
def main():
    pass

@main.command('example')
def example(arg1: str, arg2: int = 5):
    pass

main()

For further details please look at the documentation.

License

MIT