Multiple Return Values

We learned that return sends a value back from a function. But what if we want to send back more than one value? For example, a function that gives us both the minimum and maximum of a list

In many programming languages, this is tricky. In Python, it's beautifully simple

def min_max(numbers):
    return min(numbers), max(numbers)

smallest, largest = min_max([5, 2, 8, 1, 9])
print(smallest)
print(largest)

Output

1
9

What happened? The function returned two values separated by a comma. On the outside, we unpacked them into two variables, just like we did with tuples. In fact, that's exactly what Python does behind the scenes: it creates a tuple and then unpacks it

def min_max(numbers):
    return min(numbers), max(numbers)

result = min_max([5, 2, 8, 1, 9])
print(result)
print(type(result))

Output

(1, 9)
<class 'tuple'>

See? It's a tuple. return a, b is the same as return (a, b). Python lets us skip the parentheses for convenience

This is incredibly useful for functions that compute related values

def player_stats(scores):
    total = sum(scores)
    average = total / len(scores)
    best = max(scores)
    return total, average, best

t, avg, top = player_stats([80, 95, 70, 88])
print(f"Total: {t}")
print(f"Average: {avg}")
print(f"Best: {top}")

Output

Total: 333
Average: 83.25
Best: 95

One function, three useful values back. Clean

Another common use: a function that splits a full name

def split_name(full_name):
    parts = full_name.split(" ")
    first_name = parts[0]
    last_name = parts[1]
    return first_name, last_name

first, last = split_name("Tommy Vercetti")
print(f"First: {first}")
print(f"Last: {last}")

Output

First: Tommy
Last: Vercetti

.split(" ") is a new string method: it splits a string by a separator (in this case a space) and returns a list of the parts. So "Tommy Vercetti".split(" ") gives us ["Tommy", "Vercetti"]

Mission: Coordinate Parser

Write a function parse(reading) that takes a string of three numbers separated by spaces (like "45 90 12") and returns three values: the sum, the largest, and the smallest.

Inside the function, use .split(" ") to break the string into parts and turn each part into a number. Then return all three results at once.

In the main program, read a line, call parse, unpack the three values, and print them.

Input:

• three numbers on one line, separated by spaces

Output

Total: 147
Largest: 90
Smallest: 12

Example

If the user types

45 90 12

the program prints the output shown above.