python - What is the pythonic way to unpack tuples?

110
votes

This is ugly. What's a more Pythonic way to do it?

import datetime

t= (2010, 10, 2, 11, 4, 0, 2, 41, 0)
dt = datetime.datetime(t[0], t[1], t[2], t[3], t[4], t[5], t[6])
2
pythontuples
You may want to read about it in the docs: docs.python.org/tutorial/… - Nadia Alramli

2 Answers

154
votes

Generally, you can use the func(*tuple) syntax. You can even pass a part of the tuple, which seems like what you're trying to do here:

t = (2010, 10, 2, 11, 4, 0, 2, 41, 0)
dt = datetime.datetime(*t[0:7])

This is called unpacking a tuple, and can be used for other iterables (such as lists) too. Here's another example (from the Python tutorial):

>>> range(3, 6)             # normal call with separate arguments
[3, 4, 5]
>>> args = [3, 6]
>>> range(*args)            # call with arguments unpacked from a list
[3, 4, 5]