Python coding style on function call with multiple parameters

Question

This may sound like a newbie question, but I really need some help with this. I don't even know how to tag it, but I assume is just a Python question. I need to use a function that receives 5 parameters and returns 5 values:

a, b, c, d, e = function (input1, input2, input3, input4, input5)

The problem is that when I use the full variables/functions names the line is just too long, and the code looks ugly, I want to use a more fancy solution here and I was thinking on using a dict or a list so I can do this:

input_dict['param1'] = input1
input_dict['param2'] = input2
input_dict['param3'] = input3
input_dict['param4'] = input4
input_dict['param5'] = input5
ret_dict = function(input_dict)

Is there a better or "pythonic" way of improving the code quality of this kind of calls?

Thanks in advance!

I can't say I entirely understand what it is exactly that you find ugly about the original code, and in what way the input_dict version is prettier. — NPE
– NPE, Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 17:14
Note that there is a dict literal notation in Python so rather than many assignments, you should construct dictionaries as {x: y, w: z}. — Gareth Latty
– Gareth Latty, Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 17:16
Also, PEP-8 has good recommendations on dealing with line length. — Gareth Latty
– Gareth Latty, Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 17:17

Jakob Bowyer · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-02 17:23:13Z

11

You can nest lines like this

my_function(test, this, out, like, so,
                   something, indent)

You can expand lists into args like so

a = [1,2,3,4,5]
my_function(*a)

You can even do this

result = my_function(big, long, list, 
                      of, args)
a,b,c,d = result

Also, PEP-8 has good recommendations on dealing with line length. – Lattyware 5 mins ago

edited Jan 2, 2013 at 17:23

answered Jan 2, 2013 at 17:12

Jakob Bowyer

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