Meaning of comma during assignment of function return value

Question

I understood simple concepts about comma operator in Python. For instance,

x0, sigma = 0, 0.1

means x0 = 0 and sigma = 0.1. But I obtained some code that has a line that looks like the following,

y, xe = np.histogram(np.random.normal(x0, sigma, 1000))

where the output of y and xe are the following:

y
Out[10]: array([  3,  17,  58, 136, 216, 258, 189,  87,  31,   5], dtype=int64)

xe
Out[11]: 
array([-0.33771565, -0.27400243, -0.21028922, -0.146576  , -0.08286279,
       -0.01914957,  0.04456364,  0.10827686,  0.17199007,  0.23570329,
        0.2994165 ])

I am not sure how to read the y, xe expression. What could I look up to understand what it's saying?

Answerers, please be aware that the question is not about the x0, sigma = 0, 0.1 line. It's about the y, xe = np.histogram(np.random.normal(x0, sigma, 1000)) line. — user2357112
– user2357112, Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 17:44

mkrieger1 · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-08 16:11:56Z

15

x0, sigma = 0, 0.1 is syntactic sugar. Some stuff is happening behind the scenes:

0, 0.1 implicitly creates a tuple of two elements.
x0, sigma = unpacks that tuple into those two variables.

If you look at the docs for numpy.histogram, you see that it returns these two things:

hist : array
The values of the histogram. See density and weights for a description of the possible semantics.

bin_edges : array of dtype float
Return the bin edges (length(hist)+1).

Your y, xe = ... unpacks the tuple of the two returned arrays respectively. That is why your y is assigned to a numpy int64 array and your xe assigned to a numpy float array.

edited Sep 8, 2025 at 16:11

mkrieger1

24.5k7 gold badges72 silver badges87 bronze badges

answered Aug 8, 2017 at 17:42

JoshuaRLi

1,76515 silver badges23 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

MSeifert Over a year ago

Actually x0, sigma = 0, 0.1 doesn't even create the tuples - that's one of the few cases where Python optimizes the code (and avoids creating the tuples). However Python "could" create the tuples and that it doesn't is an "implementation detail" if I remember correctly.

JoshuaRLi Over a year ago

@MSeifert Yeah, I could imagine something like that would be optimized by removing the overhead of creating a new tuple only if it is going to be assigned via unpacking. Never looked too deep into that though :P

TylerH · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-08 15:34:59Z

A comma forms a tuple, which in Python looks just like an immutable list.

Python does destructuring assignment, found in a few other languages, e.g. modern JavaScript. In short, a single assignment can map several left-hand variables to the same number of right-hand values:

foo, bar = 1, 2

This is equivalent to foo = 1 and bar = 2 done in one go. This can be used to swap values:

a, b = b, a

You can use a tuple or a list on the right side, and it will be unpacked (destructured) the same way if the length matches:

a, b = [1, 2]
# same effect as above:
xs = [1, 2]
a, b = xs
# again, same effect using a tuple:
ys = 1, 2
a, b = ys

You can return a tuple or a list from a function, and destructure the result right away:

def foo():
  return (1, 2, 3)  # Parens just add readability

a, b, c = foo()  # a = 1; b = 2; c = 3

The histogram function returns a 2-tuple which is unpacked.

Youjun Hu · Accepted Answer · 2024-07-21 03:58:55Z

Your question reduces to: what is returned when function np.histogram is called, and how they are unpacked into two variables?

Assignment involving commas on the left-hand side is often known as parallel assignment. If the right-hand side of the assignment is a single variable (e.g. a list or tuple), the feature is called unpacking assignment.

In your case np.histogram returns a tuple of two elements (both are arrays), and then the tuple is unpacked to two variables, y and xe.

Fabien · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-08 19:50:24Z

-1

This might be a solution for you:

def func():
    return 'a', 3, (1,2,3)  # returns a tuple of 3 elements (str, int, tuple)

x1, x2, x3 = func()  # unpacks the tuple of 3 elements into 3 vars
# x1: 'a'
# x2: 3
# x3: (1,2,3)

edited Aug 8, 2017 at 19:50

Fabien

4,9602 gold badges21 silver badges33 bronze badges

answered Aug 8, 2017 at 17:38

sascha

33.8k6 gold badges80 silver badges117 bronze badges

1 Comment

Mad Physicist Over a year ago

This is a good illustration, but you need to explain what is happening and why it works.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Meaning of comma during assignment of function return value

4 Answers 4

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Linked

Related