Default value in Python unpacking

Question

Is there a way to have a default value if the number of values to unpack is too little compared to the variable list?

For example:

a, b, c = read_json(request)

This works if read_json returns an array of three or more variable. If it only returns two, I get an exception while assigning c. So, is there a way to set c to a default value if it can't be unpacked properly? Something like:

a, b, (c=2) = read_json(request)

Which is similar to what you do when defining a function with default arguments.

Thank you!

Answer 1

You could try * unpacking with some post-processing:

a, b, *c = read_json(request)
c = c[0] if c else 2

This will assign a and b as normal. If c is assigned something, it will be a list with one element. If only two values were unpacked, it will be an empty list. The second statement assigns to c its first element if there is one, or the default value of 2 otherwise.

>>> a, b, *c = 1, 2, 3
>>> c = c[0] if c else 2
>>> a
1
>>> b
2
>>> c
3
>>> a, b, *c = 1, 2
>>> c = c[0] if c else 2
>>> a
1
>>> b
2
>>> c
2

Answer 2

You can use chain function from itertools, which is part of the Python standard library. It serve as default filler in case if there are no values in the first list. 'defaults' list variable in my example can have number of different values for each variable that you unpack (in an example I have default value for all three values as 0).

from itertools import chain

defaults = [0] * 3
data = []

a, b, c, *_ = chain(data, defaults)
print(a, b, c)

data.append(1)
a, b, c, *_ = chain(data, defaults)
print(a, b, c)

data.append(2)
a, b, c, *_ = chain(data, defaults)
print(a, b, c)

data.append(3)
a, b, c, *_ = chain(data, defaults)
print(a, b, c)

data.append(4)
a, b, c, *_ = chain(data, defaults)
print(a, b, c)

Outputs:

0 0 0
1 0 0
1 2 0
1 2 3
1 2 3