Getoptspecific

Getoptspecific is a term used to describe a helper function or method in command-line option parsing libraries that retrieves the value associated with a single specified option after parsing. It is not standardized across languages, but the concept appears in various forms as a convenience wrapper for accessing parsed option data.

In typical usage, getoptspecific takes two inputs: the option identifier (such as a short flag like -o or a long name like --output) and the current parsed option state produced by a parser. It returns the value tied to that option, or a default if the option was not provided. For boolean flags, it may return true to indicate presence or a predefined boolean default. When an option can occur multiple times, behavior varies by library; some implementations return the last value, others return a collection of values.

Some language ecosystems implement getoptspecific as part of a higher-level interface rather than as a standalone function. For example, in libraries where options are stored in a structured object, direct field access (e.g., parsed.output) may be preferred over a dedicated getter. In other ecosystems, a dedicated helper named getoptspecific can provide uniform handling of defaults, type casting, and error reporting.

Common considerations include how defaults are defined, how required versus optional options are treated, and how multiple occurrences are aggregated. The exact behavior is determined by the specific parser in use. See also: getopts, getopt, argparse, and related command-line parsing utilities.