Unpacking Values
Unpacking pulls several values out of a list into named variables in a single line — much easier to read than indexing each position by hand.
The idea
Instead of reading each position separately:
rolls = [3, 5, 2]
first = rolls[0]
second = rolls[1]
third = rolls[2]
do it all at once:
rolls = [3, 5, 2]
first, second, third = rolls
print(first, second, third)
Names on the left, a list of the same length on the right. first gets
3, second gets 5, third gets 2. Each name says what the value means,
which reads better than rolls[0] and rolls[1] scattered through your code.
The counts must match
If there are three names on the left, the list needs exactly three items —
otherwise Python raises a ValueError. Try editing the list below and running
it to see that happen:
a, b = [10, 20]
print(a)
print(b)
Your turn
Add two lines: unpack rolls into first, second, and third, then print
second.
rolls = [4, 6, 1]
# add two lines: unpack, then print the middle value
Expected output
6
Practise this in the free Python course, where every exercise checks your code instantly.