You can assign the elements of any sequence or iterable to discrete names, provided that the number of elements on the left-hand side of the assignment expression is equal to the number of elements on its right-hand side. Python calls this procedure “unpacking”:

>>> x, y = 1, 2
>>> x; y
1
2
>>> (a, b, c) = (1, 2, (3, 4, 5))
>>> a; b; c
1
2
(3, 4, 5)

By convention, _ is used for values to be discarded. E.g. s, _ = "foo", "bar".

Use a star expression to unpack an arbitrary number of elements: (a, b, *c) = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

References

Beazley, David, and Brian K. Jones. Python Cookbook: Recipes for Mastering Python 3. 3. ed, O’Reilly, 2013.