How To Get A Single Output From A Function With Multiple Outputs?

I have the following simple function: def divide(x, y): quotient = x/y remainder = x % y return quotient, remainder x = divide(22, 7) If I accesss the variable x I

Solution 1:

You are essentially returning a tuple, which is an iterable we can index, so in the example above:

print x[0] would return the quotient and

print x[1] would return the remainder

Solution 2:

You have two broad options, either:

1. Modify the function to return either or both as appropriate, for example:

   defdivide(x, y, output=(True, True)):
       quot, rem = x // y, x % y
       ifall(output):
           return quot, rem
       elif output[0]:
           return quot
       return rem
   
   quot = divide(x, y, (True, False))
   

2. Leave the function as it is, but explicitly ignore one or the other of the returned values:

   quot, _ = divide(x, y)  # assign one to _, which means ignore by convention
   rem = divide(x, y)[1]  # select one by index

I would strongly recommend one of the latter formulations; it's much simpler!

Solution 3:

You can either unpack the return values when you call your method:

x, y = divide(22, 7)

Or you can just grab the first returned value:

x = divide(22, 7)[0]