How to ignore an output of a multi-output function in Python? [duplicate]

Question

Suppose I have a function:

def f():
  ...
  ...
  ...
  return a,b,c

and I want to get only b in output of the function. Which assignment I have to use?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can unpack the returned tuple into some dummy variables:

_, keep_this, _ = f()

It doesn't have to be _, just something obviously unused.

(Don't use _ as a dummy name in the interactive interpreter, there it is used for holding the last result.)

 

Alternatively, index the returned tuple:

keep_this = f()[1]

Answer 2

def f():
    return 1,2,3

here, f() returns a tuple (1,2,3) so you can do something like this:

a = f()[0]
print a
1

a = f()[1]
print a
2

a = f()[2]
print a
3