Visual Studio Code: How debug Python script with arguments

I also noticed that if you run the script by clicking on the debug button that looks like this , then the arguments are not passed. However, using Run -> Start Debugging (or its shortcut F5) passed the arguments successfully.

If clicking the "Debug python file" doesn't pass the arguments then add "purpose": ["debug-in-terminal"] in the launch.json file

{"version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Python: Current File",
      "type": "python",
      "request": "launch",
      "program": "${file}",
      "console": "integratedTerminal",
      "justMyCode": true,
      "args": ["--experimentName", "Debugging"],
      "purpose": ["debug-in-terminal"]
    }
  ]
}

--key1 value1 value2 --key2 value3 value4

can be passed as

"args": ["--key1=value1", "value2", "--key2=value3", "value4"]

_{(Combining the two answers by Pawan Kumar and Chunde Huang.)}

Nobody has mentioned this yet, so I thought I'd offer a suggestion that may save you some minutes and certainly some sanity. I set up my launch.json file with an args array, but I couldn't get my args to show up in the terminal when I ran the debugger.

All I had to do was quit and restart VS Code for some reason. Then it worked like a champ.

File launch.json in the Python project folder path .vscode, tested in Visual Studio Code F5.

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Python: Current File",
            "type": "python",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${file}",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "args": ["c", "pwd"],
        }
    ]
}

Don't forget: Once you edit the launch.json file, CLICK OFF IT, back to the py file you want to debug, THEN hit the debug button! Otherwise, it will try to debug itself! (?)

Combination of flags and arguments

python3 program.py --flag1 --flag2 --arg1=value1 --arg2=value2

launch.json:

"args": ["--flag1", "--flag2", "--arg1", "value1", "--arg2", "value2"]

There's one answer that is missing here yet.

There are two ways arguments will be passed:

1. Wrapped in a string OR, equivalent, with escaped spaces:

   • "--city Auckland" OR --city\ Auckland

   You will get this result when you use a list "args": ["--city Auckland"]

2. As two separated arguments with an unescaped space

   • --city Aucklang

   When you use only one string: "args": "--city Auckland" or as other answers state a list with multiple elements for each word.

For example, for a prompt to insert multiple arguments from a popup use

• "args": "{command:pickArgs}"

Make sure that the launch.json file is selected as the active debug configuration in Visual Studio Code, follow these steps:

1. Open the Visual Studio Code editor and navigate to the Debug view by clicking on the Debug icon in the left-hand sidebar or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+D (macOS).
2. In the Debug view, click on the “Run” button to start the debugger.
3. If you have multiple debug configurations defined in your launch.json file, you will be prompted to select the one you want to use. Select the appropriate configuration from the dropdown menu.
4. Once you have selected the debug configuration, the debugger will start and your code will be executed according to the settings in the launch.json file.

You can avoid any configuration and just add the command line arguments to your code temporarily, bit dirty but very practical:

import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
   sys.argv = [__file__, 'first-arg', 'second-arg', 'third-arg']
   print('arguments:', sys.argv)