# L-14 MCS 260 : area
"""
A rectangle is given by length and width,
for a square we only need one argument
to compute the area.
"""
def area(length, *width):
    "returns area of rectangle"
    if len(width) == 0:          # square
        return length**2
    else:                     # rectangle
        return length*width[0]

print('area of square or rectangle')
LEN = float(input('give length : '))
WID = float(input('give width : '))
if WID == 0:
    AREA = area(LEN)
else:
    AREA = area(LEN, WID)
print('the area is', AREA)