Accessing multiple values from a function within a function

Question

I have a function and it's getting a bit long, and so I am wanting to break it up into multiple functions. My problem is I am trying to get a number of values out of one function and into another and am not sure how to do it.

For example,say I was using these values (my program is much bigger)

def mean():
    vitaminA = 5
    calcium = 15
    vitaminD = 22

how would I get each of these values into another function? I have tried:

def mean():
    vitaminA = 5
    calcium = 15
    vitaminD = 22
    return (vitaminA, calcium, vitaminD)

def stDev():
    mean()
    print vitaminA
    print calcium
    print vitaminD

What do I actually need to do? I thought if you return values from another function within a function you could access those values?

Your function is returning values, not variables. The caller can do whatever it wants with them. This could mean putting them into its own variables (with the same names or otherwise), or putting them all into a single tuple variable, or passing them directly along to another function, or ignoring them entirely. You have to tell Python which one of those you want to do. Your code is telling it that you want to ignore them. — abarnert
– abarnert, Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 1:22

Sean Vieira · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-25 01:25:21Z

5

You just need to assign the result of calling mean to a variable (or in this case, set of variables):

vitaminA, calcium, vitaminD = mean()
print vitaminA
print calcium
print vitaminD

Python allows you to unpack any iterable into variables:

x, y, z = (1, 2, 3)
print "x: {x}, y: {y}, z: {z}".format(**locals())

The same principal applies to generators:

def generator_func():
    yield "Even"
    yield "generators"
    yield "participate"

w1, w2, w3 = generator_func()
print w1
print w2
print w3
# Even
# generators
# participate

And in Python 3 you get unpacking as well:

head, *tail = range(1, 11)
print head  # 1
print tail  # [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

edited Jun 25, 2013 at 1:25

answered Jun 25, 2013 at 1:18

Sean Vieira

161k34 gold badges321 silver badges297 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Óscar López · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-25 01:18:47Z

3

You're on the right track. By calling the mean() function you'll obtain the values that were returned there (in particular, the variables). Now you have to assign them in stDev(), to get a hold of the values - like this:

 vitaminA, calcium, vitaminD = mean()

Now stDev() has access to the values that originated in mean().

answered Jun 25, 2013 at 1:18

Óscar López

237k38 gold badges321 silver badges391 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Accessing multiple values from a function within a function

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related