It is generaly a bad idea to shadow a builtin (like list) by using a variable named after it.

You can use slices and array extension to simplify a bit your algorithm:

 def unpack(n, lst):
     result = lst[:n]
     return result + [None] * (n - len(result))

You can use the itertools module to improve memory management and allow for any iterable:

 import itertools


 def unpack(n, iterable):
     infinite = itertools.chain(iterable, itertools.repeat(None))
     return itertools.islice(infinite, n)

Python 3 has an extended unpacking capability that is closer to your needs:

 >>> x, y, *z = [1, 2)
 >>> print(x, y, z)
 1, 2, []

It is generaly a bad idea to shadow a builtin (like list) by using a variable named after it.

You can use slices and array extension to simplify a bit your algorithm:

 def unpack(n, lst):
     result = lst[:n]
     return result + [None] * (n - len(result))

You can use the itertools module to improve memory management and allow for any iterable:

 import itertools


 def unpack(n, iterable):
     infinite = itertools.chain(iterable, itertools.repeat(None))
     return itertools.islice(infinite, n)

Python 3 has an extended unpacking capability that is closer to your needs:

 >>> x, y, *z = [1, 2]
 >>> print(x, y, z)
 1, 2, []

It is generaly a bad idea to shadow a builtin (like list) by using a variable named after it.

You can use slices and array extension to simplify a bit your algorithm:

 def unpack(n, lst):
     result = lst[:n]
     return result + [None] * (n - len(result))

You can use the itertools module to improve memory management and allow for any iterable:

 import itertools


 def unpack(n, iterable):
     infinite = itertools.chain(iterable, itertools.repeat(None))
     return itertools.islice(infinite, n)

It is generaly a bad idea to shadow a builtin (like list) by using a variable named after it.

You can use slices and array extension to simplify a bit your algorithm:

 def unpack(n, lst):
     result = lst[:n]
     return result + [None] * (n - len(result))

You can use the itertools module to improve memory management and allow for any iterable:

 import itertools


 def unpack(n, iterable):
     infinite = itertools.chain(iterable, itertools.repeat(None))
     return itertools.islice(infinite, n)

Python 3 has an extended unpacking capability that is closer to your needs:

 >>> x, y, *z = [1, 2)
 >>> print(x, y, z)
 1, 2, []