How do I create a Python function with optional arguments?

Just use the *args parameter, which allows you to pass as many arguments as you want after your a,b,c. You would have to add some logic to map args->c,d,e,f but its a "way" of overloading.

def myfunc(a,b, *args, **kwargs):
   for ar in args:
      print ar
myfunc(a,b,c,d,e,f)

And it will print values of c,d,e,f

Similarly you could use the kwargs argument and then you could name your parameters.

def myfunc(a,b, *args, **kwargs):
      c = kwargs.get('c', None)
      d = kwargs.get('d', None)
      #etc
myfunc(a,b, c='nick', d='dog', ...)

And then kwargs would have a dictionary of all the parameters that are key valued after a,b

Try calling it like: obj.some_function( '1', 2, '3', g="foo", h="bar" ). After the required positional arguments, you can specify specific optional arguments by name.