Parameters — Click Documentation (8.1.x)

# Parameters

Click supports only two types of parameters for scripts (by design): options and arguments.

## Options

- Are optional.

- Recommended to use for everything except subcommands, urls, or files.

- Can take a fixed number of arguments. The default is 1. They may be specified multiple times using Multiple Options.

- Are fully documented by the help page.

- Have automatic prompting for missing input.

- Can act as flags (boolean or otherwise).

- Can be pulled from environment variables.

## Arguments

- Are optional with in reason, but not entirely so.

- Recommended to use for subcommands, urls, or files.

- Can take an arbitrary number of arguments.

- Are not fully documented by the help page since they may be too specific to be automatically documented. For more see Documenting Arguments.

- Can be pulled from environment variables but only explicitly named ones. For more see Environment Variables.

## Parameter Names

Parameters (options and arguments) have a name that will be used as the Python argument name when calling the decorated function with values.

    @click.command()
    @click.argument('filename')
    @click.option('-t', '--times', type=int)
    def multi_echo(filename, times):
        """Print value filename multiple times."""
        for x in range(times):
            click.echo(filename)

In the above example the argument’s name is `filename`. The name must match the python arg name. To provide a different name for use in help text, see Truncating Help Texts. The option’s names are `-t` and `--times`. More names are available for options and are covered in Options.

And what it looks like when run:

    $ multi_echo --times=3 index.txt
    index.txt
    index.txt
    index.txt

## Parameter Types

The supported parameter types are:

`str` / `click.STRING`:

  The default parameter type which indicates unicode strings.

`int` / `click.INT`:

  A parameter that only accepts integers.

`float` / `click.FLOAT`:

  A parameter that only accepts floating point values.

`bool` / `click.BOOL`:

  A parameter that accepts boolean values. This is automatically used for boolean flags. The string values “1”, “true”, “t”, “yes”, “y”, and “on” convert to `True`. “0”, “false”, “f”, “no”, “n”, and “off” convert to `False`.

`click.UUID`:

  A parameter that accepts UUID values. This is not automatically guessed but represented as `uuid.UUID`.

class click.File(mode='r', encoding=None, errors='strict', lazy=None, atomic=False)

  Declares a parameter to be a file for reading or writing. The file is automatically closed once the context tears down (after the command finished working).

  Files can be opened for reading or writing. The special value `-` indicates stdin or stdout depending on the mode.

  By default, the file is opened for reading text data, but it can also be opened in binary mode or for writing. The encoding parameter can be used to force a specific encoding.

  The `lazy` flag controls if the file should be opened immediately or upon first IO. The default is to be non-lazy for standard input and output streams as well as files opened for reading, `lazy` otherwise. When opening a file lazily for reading, it is still opened temporarily for validation, but will not be held open until first IO. lazy is mainly useful when opening for writing to avoid creating the file until it is needed.

  Files can also be opened atomically in which case all writes go into a separate file in the same folder and upon completion the file will be moved over to the original location. This is useful if a file regularly read by other users is modified.

  See File Arguments for more information.

  Changelog

  Changed in version 2.0: Added the `atomic` parameter.

  Parameters:

    - mode (str)

    - encoding (str | None)

    - errors (str | None)

    - lazy (bool | None)

    - atomic (bool)

class click.Path(exists=False, file_okay=True, dir_okay=True, writable=False, readable=True, resolve_path=False, allow_dash=False, path_type=None, executable=False)

  The `Path` type is similar to the `File` type, but returns the filename instead of an open file. Various checks can be enabled to validate the type of file and permissions.

  Parameters:

    - exists (bool) – The file or directory needs to exist for the value to be valid. If this is not set to `True`, and the file does not exist, then all further checks are silently skipped.

    - file_okay (bool) – Allow a file as a value.

    - dir_okay (bool) – Allow a directory as a value.

    - readable (bool) – if true, a readable check is performed.

    - writable (bool) – if true, a writable check is performed.

    - executable (bool) – if true, an executable check is performed.

    - resolve_path (bool) – Make the value absolute and resolve any symlinks. A `~` is not expanded, as this is supposed to be done by the shell only.

    - allow_dash (bool) – Allow a single dash as a value, which indicates a standard stream (but does not open it). Use `open_file()` to handle opening this value.

    - path_type (Type[Any] | None) – Convert the incoming path value to this type. If `None`, keep Python’s default, which is `str`. Useful to convert to `pathlib.Path`.

  Changed in version 8.1: Added the `executable` parameter.

  Changelog

  Changed in version 8.0: Allow passing `path_type=pathlib.Path`.

  Changed in version 6.0: Added the `allow_dash` parameter.

class click.Choice(choices, case_sensitive=True)

  The choice type allows a value to be checked against a fixed set of supported values. All of these values have to be strings.

  You should only pass a list or tuple of choices. Other iterables (like generators) may lead to surprising results.

  The resulting value will always be one of the originally passed choices regardless of `case_sensitive` or any `ctx.token_normalize_func` being specified.

  See Choice Options for an example.

  Parameters:

    - case_sensitive (bool) – Set to false to make choices case insensitive. Defaults to true.

    - choices (Sequence[str])

class click.IntRange(min=None, max=None, min_open=False, max_open=False, clamp=False)

  Restrict an `click.INT` value to a range of accepted values. See Range Options.

  If `min` or `max` are not passed, any value is accepted in that direction. If `min_open` or `max_open` are enabled, the corresponding boundary is not included in the range.

  If `clamp` is enabled, a value outside the range is clamped to the boundary instead of failing.

  Changelog

  Changed in version 8.0: Added the `min_open` and `max_open` parameters.

  Parameters:

    - min (float | None)

    - max (float | None)

    - min_open (bool)

    - max_open (bool)

    - clamp (bool)

class click.FloatRange(min=None, max=None, min_open=False, max_open=False, clamp=False)

  Restrict a `click.FLOAT` value to a range of accepted values. See Range Options.

  If `min` or `max` are not passed, any value is accepted in that direction. If `min_open` or `max_open` are enabled, the corresponding boundary is not included in the range.

  If `clamp` is enabled, a value outside the range is clamped to the boundary instead of failing. This is not supported if either boundary is marked `open`.

  Changelog

  Changed in version 8.0: Added the `min_open` and `max_open` parameters.

  Parameters:

    - min (float | None)

    - max (float | None)

    - min_open (bool)

    - max_open (bool)

    - clamp (bool)

class click.DateTime(formats=None)

  The DateTime type converts date strings into `datetime` objects.

  The format strings which are checked are configurable, but default to some common (non-timezone aware) ISO 8601 formats.

  When specifying DateTime formats, you should only pass a list or a tuple. Other iterables, like generators, may lead to surprising results.

  The format strings are processed using `datetime.strptime`, and this consequently defines the format strings which are allowed.

  Parsing is tried using each format, in order, and the first format which parses successfully is used.

  Parameters:

    formats (Sequence[str] | None) – A list or tuple of date format strings, in the order in which they should be tried. Defaults to `'%Y-%m-%d'`, `'%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S'`, `'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'`.

## How to Implement Custom Types

To implement a custom type, you need to subclass the `ParamType` class. For simple cases, passing a Python function that fails with a `ValueError` is also supported, though discouraged. Override the `convert()` method to convert the value from a string to the correct type.

The following code implements an integer type that accepts hex and octal numbers in addition to normal integers, and converts them into regular integers.

    import click

    class BasedIntParamType(click.ParamType):
        name = "integer"

        def convert(self, value, param, ctx):
            if isinstance(value, int):
                return value

            try:
                if value[:2].lower() == "0x":
                    return int(value[2:], 16)
                elif value[:1] == "0":
                    return int(value, 8)
                return int(value, 10)
            except ValueError:
                self.fail(f"{value!r} is not a valid integer", param, ctx)

    BASED_INT = BasedIntParamType()

The `name` attribute is optional and is used for documentation. Call `fail()` if conversion fails. The `param` and `ctx` arguments may be `None` in some cases such as prompts.

Values from user input or the command line will be strings, but default values and Python arguments may already be the correct type. The custom type should check at the top if the value is already valid and pass it through to support those cases.