Flash cards
Review the key moves
What is the main idea behind Python - Unpack Tuples?
Lesson checks
Practice each idea before moving on
Short Mimo-style checks built from this lesson's code, terms, and sequence.
Which statement best captures the main point of this lesson?
Complete the missing token from the example code.
___ = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")Put the learning moves in the order that makes the concept easiest to apply.
Unpacking a Tuple
When we create a tuple, we normally assign values to it. This is called "packing" a tuple:
Example
fruits = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")But, in Python, we are also allowed to extract the values back into variables. This is called "unpacking":
Example
fruits = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
(green, yellow, red) = fruits
print(green)
print(yellow)
print(red)Note
The number of variables must match the number of values in the tuple, if not, you must use an asterisk to collect the remaining values as a list.
Using Asterisk *
If the number of variables is less than the number of values, you can add an * to the variable name and the values will be assigned to the variable as a list:
Example
fruits = ("apple", "banana", "cherry", "strawberry", "raspberry")
(green, yellow, *red) = fruits
print(green)
print(yellow)
print(red)If the asterisk is added to another variable name than the last, Python will assign values to the variable until the number of values left matches the number of variables left.
Example
fruits = ("apple", "mango", "papaya", "pineapple", "cherry")
(green, *tropic, red) = fruits
print(green)
print(tropic)
print(red)