Why is 'Extended Iterable Unpacking' not working for empty strings?

Question

Why is

>>> a, *b = '' 

not possible, when

>>> a, *b = ' '
>>> a, b
(' ', [])  # b == empty list here anyway.

and

>>> type('')
<class 'str'>

I mean, why isn't it

>>> a, *b = ''
>>> a, b  # a could == ''
('', [])

Answer 1

Because there is one mandatory variable specified.

The right side should have at least one item (one character for string).

---

According to PEP-3131:

A tuple (or list) on the left side of a simple assignment (unpacking is not defined for augmented assignment) may contain at most one expression prepended with a single asterisk (which is henceforth called a "starred" expression, while the other expressions in the list are called "mandatory"). This designates a subexpression that will be assigned a list of all items from the iterable being unpacked that are not assigned to any of the mandatory expressions, or an empty list if there are no such items.

Answer 2

Based on PEP 3132 :

The function unpack_iterable() in ceval.c is changed to handle the extended unpacking, via an argcntafter parameter. In the UNPACK_EX case, the function will do the following:

• collect all items for mandatory targets before the starred one
• collect all remaining items from the iterable in a list pop items for
• mandatory targets after the starred one from the list push the single items and the resized list on the stack

So it will failed in first step because there is no mandatory targets in your string.

For more info you can check unpack_iterable in caval.c :

unpack_iterable(PyObject *v, int argcnt, int argcntafter, PyObject **sp)
{
    int i = 0, j = 0;
    Py_ssize_t ll = 0;
    PyObject *it;  /* iter(v) */
    PyObject *w;
    PyObject *l = NULL; /* variable list */

    assert(v != NULL);

    it = PyObject_GetIter(v);
    if (it == NULL)
        goto Error;

    for (; i < argcnt; i++) {
        w = PyIter_Next(it);
        if (w == NULL) {
            /* Iterator done, via error or exhaustion. */
            if (!PyErr_Occurred()) {
                if (argcntafter == -1) {
                    PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
                        "not enough values to unpack (expected %d, got %d)",
                        argcnt, i);
                }
                else {
                    PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
                        "not enough values to unpack "
                        "(expected at least %d, got %d)",
                        argcnt + argcntafter, i);
                }
            }
            goto Error;
        }
        *--sp = w;
    }

    if (argcntafter == -1) {
        /* We better have exhausted the iterator now. */
        w = PyIter_Next(it);
        if (w == NULL) {
            if (PyErr_Occurred())
                goto Error;
            Py_DECREF(it);
            return 1;
        }
        Py_DECREF(w);
        PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
            "too many values to unpack (expected %d)",
            argcnt);
        goto Error;
    }

    l = PySequence_List(it);
    if (l == NULL)
        goto Error;
    *--sp = l;
    i++;

    ll = PyList_GET_SIZE(l);
    if (ll < argcntafter) {
        PyErr_Format(PyExc_ValueError,
            "not enough values to unpack (expected at least %d, got %zd)",
            argcnt + argcntafter, argcnt + ll);
        goto Error;
    }

    /* Pop the "after-variable" args off the list. */
    for (j = argcntafter; j > 0; j--, i++) {
        *--sp = PyList_GET_ITEM(l, ll - j);
    }
    /* Resize the list. */
    Py_SIZE(l) = ll - argcntafter;
    Py_DECREF(it);
    return 1;

Error:
    for (; i > 0; i--, sp++)
        Py_DECREF(*sp);
    Py_XDECREF(it);
    return 0;
}