What is unpacking in Python?

Unpacking is a mechanism that allows you to "extract" a collection into separate variables.

Multiple assignment:

a, b, c = [1, 2, 3]
print(a, b, c)  # 1 2 3

# Works with tuples, strings, and other iterables
x, y = (10, 20)
first, second, third = "abc"

Variable swapping (swap):

a, b = 1, 2
a, b = b, a
print(a, b)  # 2 1

Unpacking with * (asterisk):

Collects the "remaining" items into a list:

first, *rest = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(first)  # 1
print(rest)   # [2, 3, 4, 5]

first, *middle, last = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(middle)  # [2, 3, 4]

Unpacking in function calls:

def greet(name, age, city):
    print(f"{name}, {age}, {city}")

data = ["Anna", 25, "Moscow"]
greet(*data)  # Unpacking a list

info = {"name": "Ivan", "age": 30, "city": "St. Petersburg"}
greet(**info)  # Unpacking a dictionary

Unpacking in nested structures:

points = [(1, 2), (3, 4), (5, 6)]
for x, y in points:
    print(f"x={x}, y={y}")