title: How can I denote unused function arguments?
body: <p>When "deconstructing" a tuple, I can use <code>_</code> to denote tuple elements I'm not interested in, e.g.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; a,_,_ = (1,2,3)
  &gt;&gt;&gt; a
  1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Using Python 2.x, how can I express the same with function arguments? I tried to use underscores:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; def f(a,_,_): return a
  ...
    File "&lt;stdin&gt;", line 1
  SyntaxError: duplicate argument '_' in function definition
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I also tried to just omit the argument altogether:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; def f(a,,): return a
    File "&lt;stdin&gt;", line 1
      def f(a,,): return a
          ^
  SyntaxError: invalid syntax
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there another way to achieve the same?</p>