trouble with returning multiple values from function

Question

I tried researching on a way to return multiple values using single return variable. What i want to achieve is, i want the code below to act as if it is returning multiple value instead of returning a tuple

def my_data:
    test_data = 1, 2, 3, 4 # etc (i have a LOT of data here)
    return test_data

what i get is the following:

  td = my_data()
  print td
  output : (1,2,3,4)

i want the function to act as it was doing the following code:

return 1,2,3,4

Is there a way to this?

EDIT!

i'm using this with python ddt

@ddt
class testsuite_my_function_validations(unittest.TestCase):

    @data(my_data())
    def test_various_number(self, value):
        test_number = value
        # test the number

It is suppose to have four test data (1, 2, 3 and 4) instead i'm getting a tuple value and not the those four numbers. But when i

return 1,2,3,4

The output will have four testcases:

testcase test value 1
testcase test value 2
testcase test value 3
testcase test value 4

return 1, 2, 3, 4 is exactly the same with return test_data. — aIKid
– aIKid, Commented Jan 12, 2014 at 6:21

user2357112 · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-12 06:57:42Z

Returning multiple return values, like so:

return 1, 2, 3, 4

actually creates a tuple and returns it. It's exactly the same as

test_data = 1, 2, 3, 4
return test_data

In both cases, you can store the returned tuple in a variable or unpack it:

def my_data():
    test_data = 1, 2, 3, 4
    return test_data
a, b, c, d = my_data()

What you need to do is unpack the tuple in the decorator call with * notation:

@ddt
class testsuite_my_function_validations(unittest.TestCase):
#         v this star here
    @data(*my_data())
    def test_various_number(self, value):
        test_number = value
        # test the number

Putting a * before the last argument of a function call unpacks that argument as a sequence and feeds the sequence elements as separate arguments to the function. In other words,

f(1, *(2, 3, 4))

is equivalent to

f(1, 2, 3, 4)

Note that tuples are generally for fixed-length collections, often of inhomogenous data. If you have a large amount of data, lists are usually more suitable.

Serial · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-12 06:22:35Z

0

Youre question is confusing on the output you are trying to achieve but,

you could use a list like this:

list1 = [1,2,3,4]

return list1

then you can acsess those values from on variable

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