Obtain argument of tensor product

Question

I want to obtain the argument of a TensorProduct as a list of elements by applying another function.

For example, I wish to write a function h which, when applied to a tensor product, produces the arguments as follows

h[TensorProduct[a__]]:={a}

However, this doesn't work. The output is simply

TensorProduct[a]

Strangely it works for heads different from TensorProduct. For example

h[g[a__]]:={a}

works.

I can get the right output by doing for example

h[TensorProduct[a__]]:=List@@TensorProduct[a]

but why can I not just extract the argument in the previous way?

Answer 1

Give h the attribute HoldFirst to prevent TensorProduct from evaluating:

ClearAll[h]
SetAttributes[h, HoldFirst]
h[TensorProduct[a__]] := {a}
h[TensorProduct[a, b]]

{a, b}