[Tutor] multiple objects with one assignment?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, Jan 02, 2015 at 05:25:12AM -0500, Brandon Dorsey wrote:
> I know there is are easier ways to assign multiple objects to a variable,
> but why, does the following code work?  Why does it return a tuple versus a
> list?  I know it has something to do with the semi-colon, but I didn't know
> it wouldn't  raise an error.
> 
> greetings = "hello,", "what's", "your", "name?"

There is no semi-colon involved.

The thing to remember is that *commas*, not parentheses, are used for 
making tuples. The round brackets are just for grouping.

So these are exactly the same:

x = "hello", "world"  # tuple of two strings
y = ("hello", "world")  # also a tuple of two strings


So you can make a tuple of a single item:

x = 23,  # same as x = (23,)

The exception is the empty tuple:

y = ()


-- 
Steven