What does the asterisk (*) operator signify when used in function parameters?

The asterisk (*) operator in function parameters is a powerful feature in Python that allows a function to accept an arbitrary number of positional arguments. When you place an asterisk before a parameter in a function definition, it collects any extra positional arguments passed to the function into a tuple. This is particularly useful when you are not sure how many arguments might be passed, as it enables more flexible and dynamic function calls.

For example, if you define a function like this:

def my_function(*args):

for arg in args:

print(arg)

You can call my_function(1, 2, 3) and it will print each of the numbers because args will be a tuple containing the values (1, 2, 3). This capability makes it easy to handle cases where the number of inputs varies, enhancing the function's versatility.

In contrast, the other choices describe different aspects of Python functions but do not accurately reflect the role of the asterisk operator in parameters.