"Randy Bush" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> l = [] > >>> s = 'a|b' > >>> t, l = s.split('|') > >>> t > 'a' > >>> l > 'b' > >>> s = 'a|b|c|d' > >>> t, l = s.split('|') > Traceback (most recent call last): > File "<stdin>", line 1, in ? > ValueError: too many values to unpack > >>> > > so, i imagine what is happening is the lhs, t,l, is really > (t, (l)), i.e. only two items. > > so how should i have done this readably and simply?
>>> s = 'a|b|c|d' >>> l = s.split('|') >>> t = l.pop(0) By the way, don't use 'l' as an identifier; it is very close to '1' visually. George -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list