Structured assignment

Once  we have  tuples and lists, we may use  a nice trick  in assignment expression, based  on the packing and unpacking of tuples.

>>> a, b, c = 1, 2, 3

>>> a

1

>>> b

2

>>> c

3

Or, with lists,

>>> [a, b, c] = [1, 2, 3]

>>> a

1

>>> b

2

>>> c

3

When  you have  a list (or a tuple)  on the left-hand side of an assignment expression, you have  to have  a list of matching structure on the right-hand side.  Then  Python will "unpack" them  both,  and give  to the individual components of the structure on the left side.  You may get fancier with this function:

>>> thing = [8, 9, [1, 2], 'John', [33.3, 44.4]]

>>> [a, b, c, d, [e1, e2]] = thing

>>> c

[1, 2]

>>> e1

33.299999999999997