How to get a single output from a function with multiple outputs?

Question

I have the following simple function:

def divide(x, y):
    quotient = x/y
    remainder = x % y
    return quotient, remainder  

x = divide(22, 7)
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Answer 1

You are essentially returning a tuple, which is an iterable we can index, so in the example above:

print x[0] would return the quotient and

print x[1] would return the remainder

Answer 2

You have two broad options, either:

1. Modify the function to return either or both as appropriate, for example:

   def divide(x, y, output=(True, True)):
       quot, rem = x // y, x % y
       if all(output):
           return quot, rem
       elif output[0]:
           return quot
       return rem
   
   quot = divide(x, y, (True, False))
   

2. Leave the function as it is, but explicitly ignore one or the other of the returned values:

   quot, _ = divide(x, y)  # assign one to _, which means ignore by convention
   rem = divide(x, y)[1]  # select one by index
   

I would strongly recommend one of the latter formulations; it's much simpler!

Answer 3

You can either unpack the return values when you call your method:

x, y = divide(22, 7)

Or you can just grab the first returned value:

x = divide(22, 7)[0]