On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 12:31 PM, Homme, James <james.ho...@highmark.com> wrote: > So far, the data types this little book has talked about are strings and > numbers. ... > return jelly_beans, jars, crates ... > # It returns three things in parentheses, which, I guess is one group of > things. I thought it would complain.
You book may not have talked about it yet, but there is a third data type involved here, a tuple. The secret_formula() function doesn't actually return three separate things. It returns a single object that contains a sequence of three other objects. In this case, it specifically returns a tuple (rather than a list or other sequence type). Take a look here http://docs.python.org/tutorial/datastructures.html#tuples-and-sequences for more about tuples in particular, and the rest of that page for an overview of sequence types in general. >beans, jars, crates = secret_formula(start_point) This line performs what python calls "sequence unpacking" (sometimes also called "tuple unpacking"). That's described in the same link I referenced above. Hopefully that gives you a few places to read more without explaining the whole thing. -- Jerry _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
