What does '*' signify in python function declarations ?
<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
  <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/36901/what-does-and-do-for-python-parameters">What does ** and * do for python parameters?</a>  </p>
</blockquote>



<p>I saw this in a function definition, this was located in heapq.py, the python implementation of a heap queue</p>

<pre><code>def merge(*iterables):
</code></pre>
