title: Python convert *args to list
body: <p>I am trying to learn how to use *args and came up with this.</p>
  
  <pre><code>alist =[5,2,6,1,2]
  blist =[1,5,2,4,1]
  
  def argstest(var1, var2, *args):
      print "var1", var1
      print "var2", var2
  
      temp = list(args)[0]
  
      for i in temp:
          if i &gt; 3:
             print i
  
  argstest(5, 8, alist, blist)
  &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; var1 5
  &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; var2 8
  &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; 5
  &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;6
  &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;5
  &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;4
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Though I see how this could be very useful my first concern was that  </p>
  
  <pre><code>temp = list(args)[0]  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>is a very odd way to convert <code>*args</code> into a list, and the second was that this is not a standard way of making use of <code>*args</code>.</p>
  
  <p>My question what would be the standard way of converting <code>*args</code> to a list?</p>
  
  <p>Also, is this even the correct way to write a function that performs a task in this manner?</p>