Python Essentials

Multiple assignment

We looked at tuples in Chapter 2, Simple Data Types. One of the important reasons for using a tuple is that it has a fixed number of items. Since a tuple is a kind of sequence, we can refer to items within a tuple using numeric indices.

Consider the following RGB triple:

>>> brick_red = (203, 65, 84)

We can use brick_red[0] to get the red element of this triple.

We can also do this:

>>> r, g, b = brick_red
>>> r
203

We've used multiple assignment to decompose the RGB three-tuple into three individual variables.

This works when the number of variables on the left side of the = matches the number of items in the collection on the right side. When working with fixed-sized tuples, this is an easy condition to guarantee.

When working with ...