An introductory example to itertools.starmap and an explanation of why it is called “starmap”.

Imagine you have a series of tuples with arguments for a Python 🐍 function.

For example, tuples of base and exponent: [(2, 3), (2, 4), (2, 5)] to represent 2³, 2⁴, 2⁵.

How can you map a function into those arguments?

Use itertools.starmap!

>>> args = [
...     (2, 3),
...     (2, 4),
...     (2, 5),
... ]

>>> from itertools import starmap 
>>> list(starmap(pow, args))
[8, 16, 32]

Why is it called starmap?

I'll show you!

How would you do this if you didn't know about starmap?

You would probably do this by mapping a lambda with *args ("star-args"):

>>> args = [
...     (2, 3),
...     (2, 4),
...     (2, 5),
... ]

>>> list(map(lambda args: pow(*args), args)) 
[8, 16, 32]

Another interesting alternative could be to use zip (with star) to “unzip” the arguments.

Then, you could use a plain map:

>>> args = [
...     (2, 3),
...     (2, 4),
...     (2, 5),
... ]

>>> bases, exponents = zip(*args)
>>> bases
(2, 2, 2)
>>> exponents
(3, 4, 5)
>>> list(map(pow, bases, exponents))
[8, 16, 32]

What alternative do you often use? Will you start using starmap now?

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