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To: python-list@python.org
From: Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu>
Subject: Re: assign only first few items of a tuple/list
Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:18:25 -0500
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On 12/4/2012 4:36 PM, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 8:25 AM, Daniel Fetchinson
> <fetchinson@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Hi folks, I swear I used to know this but can't find it anywhere.
>> Say I have a list x = [ 1,2,3,4,5 ] and only care about the first two items.
>> I'd like to assign the first two items to two variables, something like,
>>
>> a, b, _ = x
>>
>> but the above will not work, of course, but what is the common idiom
>> for this that does?
>
> Try this:
>
> a, b, *_ = x
>
> Assigns 1 to a, 2 to b, and [3,4,5] to _

Or a, b = x[0:2]; depending on whether you do or do not want the 
remainder as a separate item.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy