Python star unpacking for version 2.7
iterable-unpacking, python, python-2.7
Solution
in python 2.X, you can do:
c = (1, 2, 3)
a, b = c[0], c[1:]
as long as `c` has at least one member it will work because if `c` only has 1 thing in it `c[1:]` is `[]`.
You should probably make sure there is at least one thing in `c` though, or else `c[0]` will raise an exception.
You could do something like:
try:
c = tuple(c)
a, b = c[0], c[1:]
except TypeError, IndexError:
# c is not iterable, or c is iterable, but it doesn't have any stuff in it.
# do something else
pass
Problem
As mentioned here, you can use the star for unpacking an unknown number of variables (like in functions), but only in python 3: ``` >>> a, *b = (1, 2, 3) >>> b [2, 3] >>> a, *b = (1,) >>> b [] ``` In python 2.7, the best I can come up with is (not terrible, but annoying): ``` c = (1, 2, 3) a, b = c[0], c[1:] if len(c) > 1 else [] ``` Is there a way to import this from __future__ like division, or will I need my own function to do unknown-length unpacking in python 2.7?