What does the Double Star operator mean in Python?
Last Updated :
23 Jul, 2025
The ** (double star)operator in Python is used for exponentiation. It raises the number on the left to the power of the number on the right. For example:
2 ** 3 returns 8 (since 2³ = 8)
It is one of the Arithmetic Operator (Like +, -, *, **, /, //, %) in Python and is also known as Power Operator.
Precedence of Arithmetic Operators
Arithmetic operators follow the same precedence rules as in mathematics, and they are: exponential is performed first, multiplication and division are performed next ,followed by addition and subtraction.
() >> ** >> * >> / >> // >> % >> + >> -
Examples of ** (Double Star) Operator:
Example 1: As Exponentiation Operator
For numeric data types, double-asterisk (**) is defined as an Exponentiation Operator. Example:
Python
a = 2
b = 5
c = a**b
print(c)
z = 2 * (4 ** 2) + 3 * (4 ** 2 - 10)
print(z)
Explanation:
1. 2 ** 5 means 2 raised to the power 5 = 32
2. In the second expression:
- 4 ** 2 = 16
- So: 2 * 16 + 3 * (16 - 10) = 32 + 18 = 50
Example 2: As arguments in functions and methods
In a function definition, the double asterisk ** is used to define **kwargs, which allows you to pass a variable number of keyword arguments as a dictionary. While kwargs is just a naming convention, the ** is what actually enables this functionality. Example:
Python
def fun(**kwargs):
for key, val in kwargs.items():
print("{} : {}".format(key, val))
fun(n_1="Prajjwal", n_2="Kareena", n_3="Brijkant")
Outputn_1 : Prajjwal
n_2 : Kareena
n_3 : Brijkant
Explanation:
- **kwargs collects keyword arguments into a dictionary.
- Inside the function, we iterate through the dictionary and print each key-value pair.
Example 3: Unpacking Dictionary into Function Parameters
Apart from defining functions, ** is also used to pass a dictionary as keyword arguments when calling a function. It's very useful when wewant to pass dynamic data into a function.
Python
def intro(name, age, city):
print(f"My name is {name}, I'm {age} years old and I live in {city}.")
p = {
"name": "Prajjwa'",
"age": 23,
"city": "Prayagraj"
}
intro(**p)
OutputMy name is Prajjwa', I'm 23 years old and I live in Prayagraj.
Explanation: The **p syntax unpacks the dictionary and passes its key-value pairs as arguments to the intro function.
