How to return a bool and a string in a return statement?

Question

I have the following statement:

if Game.item_can_move(item_target) == True:
    return True + ""

else:
    return False + ", error"

but this doesn't seem to work. I would like to return a bool, str in both of the return.

return a tuple: `return (False, "")` - the () are optional, the `,` is important part — Patrick Artner, Jul 05 '20 at 18:35
Consider raising an exception in the invalid case, rather than having the calling code check return values. — snakecharmerb, Jul 05 '20 at 18:35
BTW, [don't do `if boolean == True`, just do `if boolean`](https://stackoverflow.com/a/9494887/4518341) — wjandrea, Jul 05 '20 at 18:51

HadiRj · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-05T18:57:09.590

1

You can use three strategies here,

Use ~~Object~~ Class

class Foo:
    def __init__(self): 
        self.foo = "foo"
        self.is_bar = True   
    
def my_method(): 
    return Foo() 
          
tmp = my_method()  
print(tmp.foo) 
print(tmp.is_bar)

Use Tuple

def my_method(): 
    foo = "foo"
    is_bar = True
    return foo, is_bar

Use a list/dic/..

def my_method(): 
    foo = "foo"
    is_bar = True
    return [foo, is_bar]

Reference

edited Jul 05 '20 at 18:57

answered Jul 05 '20 at 18:46

HadiRj

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All of those are objects, just to be clear – juanpa.arrivillaga Jul 05 '20 at 18:47

Red · Answer 2 · 2020-07-05T19:09:43.503

0

You can return multiple things at once with commas:

if Game.item_can_move(item_target) == True:
    return True, ""

else:
    return False, "error"

The reason your code didn't work is because you cannot concat a python str with a bool type. You can, however, do:

if Game.item_can_move(item_target) == True:
    return str(True) + ", "

else:
    return str(False) + ", error"

BTW, your code can be simplified:

b = Game.item_can_move(item_target)
if b:
    return b, ""
return b, "error"

edited Jul 05 '20 at 19:09

answered Jul 05 '20 at 18:34

Red

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Further simplified: `return b, ("" if b else "error")` – wjandrea Jul 05 '20 at 18:53
Can be further simplified by removing `else` and going directly to the `return` statement – jdaz Jul 05 '20 at 18:53
@jdaz How, taking into account the different strings that need to be returned? – Red Jul 05 '20 at 19:02
1

To be clear, keep `return b, "error"`, but just take it out of the `else` block. If `b`, then it returns `b, ""` and the function ends. Then the only way it can get to the next line of `return b, "error"` is if `b` is falsey. So you don’t need `else`. – jdaz Jul 05 '20 at 19:08

How to return a bool and a string in a return statement?

2 Answers2