Sometimes, it is more convenient if the function can just accept any number of arguments. In this case, we can add three dots ... to a function argument and Julia will automatically roll up all passed arguments into a single variable. This feature is known as slurping.

Here is an example:

# Shoot any number of targets
function shoot(from::Widget, targets::Widget...)
    println("Type of targets: ", typeof(targets))
    for target in targets
        println(from.name, " --> ", target.name)
    end
end

In the shoot function, we first print the type of the targets variable and then print every shot that was fired. Let's set up the game pieces first:

spaceship = Widget("Spaceship", Position(0, 0), Size(30,30))
target1 = asteroids[1]
target2 = asteroids[2]
target3 = asteroids[3]

Now we can start shooting! Let's first call the shoot function by passing a single target and then do that again by passing three targets:

It turns out that the arguments are just combined as a tuple and bound to a single targets variable. In this case, we just iterate the tuple and perform an action on each of them.

Slurping is a fantastic way to combine function arguments and handle them all together. This makes it possible to call the function with any number of arguments.

Next, we will learn about a similar feature called splatting, which essentially performs the opposite function of slurping.