Multiple return values
Multiple return values are function results in which a single invocation provides more than one distinct value.
Go in Practice, Second Edition
- How it is used
- Pairs distinct Go function results, especially a useful value with a trailing error for caller-side handling.
- How deep it goes
- Shows return signatures, assignments, named returns, and error checks, without exploring runtime internals.
- Examples
- Uses a two-string function and a string concatenator with successful and missing-input paths.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch: define Go functions with multiple results and check errors before relying on associated values.
Read how Go in Practice, Second Edition explains multiple return values →
Python How-To
Multiple return values are values expressed by a function return statement and represented at runtime as one returned object, commonly a tuple.
- How it is used
- Simplifies downstream processing when one function produces several closely related results.
- How deep it goes
- Explains tuple packing and unpacking, while stopping short of broader return-object design.
- Examples
- Uses a statistics function returning a mean and standard deviation, then unpacks its tuple result.
- What you can do after
- Apply tuple packing and unpacking to return and consume related results from Python functions.
Related concepts
- Goused by · Go is a statically typed, compiled, garbage-collected programming language with built-in support for concurrency.
- os.ReadFileproduced by · os.ReadFile is a Go standard-library function that reads an entire named file and returns its contents as a byte slice and an error.
- Mapproduced by · A map is an associative data structure that stores key-value pairs and supports retrieving values by key.
- tuple unpackingused by · Tuple unpacking is assigning the elements of an iterable to multiple corresponding targets in a single operation.
- functionproduced by · A function is a callable program unit that performs an operation, may accept inputs, and can produce a result or side effect.
- tuplekind of · A tuple is a finite, ordered collection of elements treated as a single composite value or record.
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