Can I require a subset of parameters in a python method?

Question

I have a function that can take either 1 string or 4 strings:

def my_function(a, b, c, d, e):

I want the user to either pass in a , or to pass in b, c, d and e . I know that I can make them all default to None , but then I need to have logic in my code that ensures that we either get only a , or that we get values for all of b , c , d and e .

Is there a better way to structure this? I really don't want to have two different methods, but that is also a possibility.

Answer 1

Not 100% sure if this is what you're going for.

But this could work:

def my_function(*args):
    if len(args) == 1:
        a = args[0]
        # do stuff with a
    elif len(args) == 4:
        (b, c, d, e) = args
        # do stuff with b,c,d,e
    else:
        raise Exception("Expected 1 or 4 arguments: Got " + str(len(args)))