Think Python - Denison University

12.3. Tuples as return values 117>>> print unamemonty>>> print domainpython.org12.3 Tuples as returnvaluesStrictly speaking, a function can only return one value, but if the value is a tuple, the effect is thesameasreturningmultiplevalues. Forexample, ifyouwanttodividetwointegersandcomputethequotient and remainder, it is inefficient to compute x/y and then x%y. It is better to compute themboth at thesame time.The built-in function divmod takes two arguments and returns a tuple of two values, the quotientand remainder. You can storetheresult asatuple:>>> t = divmod(7, 3)>>> print t(2, 1)Or usetuple assignment tostoretheelements separately:>>> quot, rem = divmod(7, 3)>>> print quot2>>> print rem1Here isanexample of afunction that returns atuple:def min_max(t):return min(t), max(t)maxandminarebuilt-infunctionsthatfindthelargestandsmallestelementsofasequence. min_maxcomputes both and returnsatupleof twovalues.12.4 Variable-lengthargument tuplesFunctions can take a variable number of arguments. A parameter name that begins with * gathersarguments into atuple. For example,printalltakes any number of arguments and prints them:def printall(*args):print argsThegatherparametercanhaveanynameyoulike,butargsisconventional. Here’showthefunctionworks:>>> printall(1, 2.0, '3')(1, 2.0, '3')The complement of gather is scatter. If you have a sequence of values and you want to pass it to afunction as multiple arguments, you can use the * operator. For example, divmod takes exactly twoarguments; itdoesn’t workwithatuple: