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This maybe a stupid question but I'm having trouble finding the answer.

I'm using Flask/Python and have a .py file named 'hero.py' that contains a dict ex.

heroes = {'ironman': 'Strength, Covert', 'IronFist': 'Tech, Strenght'}

def hero():
    hero, attribute = random.choice(list(heroes.items()))
    if 'Tech' not in attribute:
        hero, attribute = random.choice(list(heroes.items()))
    if 'Tech' in attribute:
        return(hero, attribute)

What I'm wondering is how to use just the attribute variable when I call the function?

I can do something like:

my_hero = hero()
print(my_hero)

But how do I print out only the attribute of that hero? Hopefully that makes sense?

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  • Keep in mind that random.choice might find an unsuitable entry both times. What would happen then? Did you perhaps want to use a loop instead? Better yet, try to find all the entries that do qualify, and make a random.choice from only those. Commented Jun 5, 2022 at 16:34

2 Answers 2

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When you have a function that returns indexable data such as a tuple or list, you can assign the set of contained values to a variable in multiple ways:

def my_function():
    return ('a', 'b')

You can assign the return value to a single variable:

example_1 = my_function()

>>> example_1
('a', 'b')

Or you can assign it to multiple variables, matching the number of values in the object:

example_2a, example_2b = my_function()

>>> example_2a
'a'

>>> example_2b
'b'

If you only need one of the values but not the other, a common form is to assign the unneeded value to _, which is considered a standard throwaway:

_, example_3 = my_function()

This works even if you have a ton of values and want to throw away more than one:

def my_next_function():
    return ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e')

_, example_4, _, _, _ = my_next_function()

>>> example_4
'b'

Of course, you could also simply do positional assignment, e.g.:

example_5 = my_function()[1]

However I prefer the _ method as I think it makes the intention cleaner - that is, it tells the reader explicitly that you only care about one value and not the others. But to each their own

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Thank you. This works perfect and thank you even more for the detailed explanation. Makes much more sense now, especially the _ bit, that clears up a different question I was having. Two birds with one stone!
1

print(hero()[0]) should work for first attribute

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Thank you! That works great, I didn't know you do that actually. Was having trouble finding an example too.

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