Assign Many Variables at Once, Python

Question

Is there a better way to do this?

a, b, c, = \"yyy\", \"yyy\", \"yyy\"

Obvious attempts fails

a, b, c, = \"yyy\"
a, b, c = \"yy         


        

Answer 1

>>> a, b, c = ("yyy",)*3 

The above construct is equivalent to a = b = c = "yyy" but requires creation of a tuple in memory, and still a,b,c are just references to the same object.

For different id's use:

a, b, c = ("yyy" for _ in xrange(3))

This will not matter for string as they are immutable, but for mutable object they are different type of assignments.

>>> a = b = c = []       #all of them are references to the same object
>>> a is b
True
>>> a.append(1)          #Modifying one of them in-place affects others as well
>>> a, b, c
([1], [1], [1])
>>> a, b, c, = ([],)*3   #same as a = b = c = []
>>> a is b
True

#Here a, b, c point to different objects
>>> a, b, c, = ([] for _ in xrange(3))
>>> a is b
False
>>> a.append(1)
>>> a, b, c
([1], [], [])