Improve Python Code Readability by Enforcing Named Arguments

Rick Donato

Nov 4, 2025 1 min read

🐍 Python Tip:
Improve code readability by enforcing named arguments. To enforce all arguments to be named, start your parameter list with *.

Here’s an example:

def add_vlan(*, vlan_id, name):
    print(f"VLAN ID: {vlan_id}")
    print(f"Name: {name}")

add_vlan(vlan_id=10, name="Management")   # ✅ Named arguments
add_vlan(10, "Management")                # ❌ Positional arguments not allowed

# Output:
# VLAN ID: 10
# Name: Management
# Traceback (most recent call last):
#   File "main.py", line 8, in 
#     add_vlan(10, "Management")
# TypeError: add_vlan() takes 0 positional arguments but 2 were given