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6.15 Multiple Function Output

  • Occasionally a function should produce multiple output values
  • However, function return statements are limited to returning only one value.
  • A workaround is to package the multiple outputs into a single container, commonly a tuple, and to then return that container.

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  • Recall that a tuple doesn't require parentheses around the contents, as the comma indicates a tuple should be created
  • The outputs could also have been returned in a list, as in return [mean, std_dev].

  • The statement average, standard_deviation = get_grade_stats(student_scores) utilizes unpacking to perform multiple assignments at once, so that average and standard_deviation are assigned the first and second elements from the returned tuple.