Argparse: Required arguments listed under "optional arguments"?

Question

I use the following simple code to parse some arguments; note that one of them is required. Unfortunately, when the user runs the script without providing the argument, the displayed usage/help text does not indicate that there is a non-optional argument, which I find very confusing. How can I get python to indicate that an argument is not optional?

Here is the code:

import argparse
if __name__ == '__main__':
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        description='Foo')
    parser.add_argument('-i','--input', help='Input file name', required=True)
    parser.add_argument('-o','--output', help='Output file name', default="stdout")
    args = parser.parse_args()
    print ("Input file: %s" % args.input )
    print ("Output file: %s" % args.output )

When running above code without providing the required argument, I get the following output:

usage: foo.py [-h] -i INPUT [-o OUTPUT]

Foo

optional arguments:
    -h, --help            show this help message and exit
    -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                          Input file name
    -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                          Output file name

Answer 1

Since I prefer to list required arguments before optional, I hack around it via:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser._action_groups.pop()
required = parser.add_argument_group('required arguments')
optional = parser.add_argument_group('optional arguments')
required.add_argument('--required_arg', required=True)
optional.add_argument('--optional_arg')
return parser.parse_args()

and this outputs:

usage: main.py [-h] --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG [--optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG]

required arguments:
  --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG

optional arguments:
  --optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG

I can live without -h, --help showing up in the optional arguments group.

Answer 2

Building off of @Karl Rosaen

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
optional = parser._action_groups.pop() # Edited this line
required = parser.add_argument_group('required arguments')
# remove this line: optional = parser...
required.add_argument('--required_arg', required=True)
optional.add_argument('--optional_arg')
parser._action_groups.append(optional) # added this line
return parser.parse_args()

and this outputs:

usage: main.py [-h] [--required_arg REQUIRED_ARG]
           [--optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG]

required arguments:
  --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG

optional arguments:
  -h, --help                    show this help message and exit
  --optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG

Answer 3

One more time, building off of @RalphyZ

This one doesn't break the exposed API.

from argparse import ArgumentParser, SUPPRESS
# Disable default help
parser = ArgumentParser(add_help=False)
required = parser.add_argument_group('required arguments')
optional = parser.add_argument_group('optional arguments')

# Add back help 
optional.add_argument(
    '-h',
    '--help',
    action='help',
    default=SUPPRESS,
    help='show this help message and exit'
)
required.add_argument('--required_arg', required=True)
optional.add_argument('--optional_arg')

Which will show the same as above and should survive future versions:

usage: main.py [-h] [--required_arg REQUIRED_ARG]
           [--optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG]

required arguments:
  --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG

optional arguments:
  -h, --help                    show this help message and exit
  --optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG

Answer 4

by default there're 2 argument groups in parser._action_groups: positional arguments and named arguments (titled 'optional arguments'). you can add your named optional arguments to the existing 'optional arguments' group, and required named arguments to a new 'required arguments' group. After that you can re-order groups:

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Foo')

required = parser.add_argument_group('required arguments')

required.add_argument('-i','--input', help='Input file name', required=True)
parser.add_argument('-o','--output', help='Output file name', default="stdout")

groups_order = {
    'positional arguments': 0,
    'required arguments': 1,
    'optional arguments': 2
}
parser._action_groups.sort(key=lambda g: groups_order[g.title])

parser.parse_args(['-h'])

output:

usage: argparse_argument_groups.py [-h] -i INPUT [-o OUTPUT]

Foo

required arguments:
  -i INPUT, --input INPUT
                        Input file name

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output file name

Answer 5

You don't need to override the optional group.

Just do:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
required = parser.add_argument_group('required arguments')
required.add_argument('--required_arg', required=True)
# All arguments set via parser directly will automatically go to the optional group
parser.add_argument('--optional_arg')
parser.print_help()

will print out

usage: [-h] --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG [--optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG

required arguments:
  --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG

If you wish to have required arguments before optional, you can do the following:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
optional = parser._action_groups.pop()
required = parser.add_argument_group('required arguments')
parser._action_groups.append(optional)
required.add_argument('--required_arg', required=True)
optional.add_argument('--optional_arg')
parser.print_help()

that will print groups in the correct order:

usage: [-h] --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG [--optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG]

required arguments:
  --required_arg REQUIRED_ARG

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --optional_arg OPTIONAL_ARG

Answer 6

The required arguments are usually "positional" arguments when using argparse.

    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Foo")
    parser.add_argument("username")
    parser.add_argument("password")

This will add two positional arguments which are required.