Home/ Questions/Q 39529
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-10T14:52:45+00:00

I have a method in my Python code that returns a tuple – a

  • 0

I have a method in my Python code that returns a tuple – a row from a SQL query. Let’s say it has three fields: (jobId, label, username)

For ease of passing it around between functions, I’ve been passing the entire tuple as a variable called ‘job’. Eventually, however, I want to get at the bits, so I’ve been using code like this: (jobId, label, username) = job

I’ve realised, however, that this is a maintenance nightmare, because now I can never add new fields to the result set without breaking all of my existing code. How should I have written this?

Here are my two best guesses: (jobId, label, username) = (job[0], job[1], job[2]) …but that doesn’t scale nicely when you have 15…20 fields

or to convert the results from the SQL query to a dictionary straight away and pass that around (I don’t have control over the fact that it starts life as a tuple, that’s fixed for me)

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. I’d say that a dictionary is definitely the best way to do it. It’s easily extensible, allows you to give each value a sensible name, and Python has a lot of built-in language features for using and manipulating dictionaries. If you need to add more fields later, all you need to change is the code that converts the tuple to a dictionary and the code that actually makes use of the new values.

    For example:

    job={} job['jobid'], job['label'], job['username']=<querycode>
    • 0