what does * mean in front of a variable?

Question

Hello,

I don't understand the following code whose output is 112133
especially what the asterisk means......

x = (1,2,3)
print(*x, sep='1', end='3')

could anyone explain a little?

Answer 1

* before variable is for "unpacking". It just prints all values in container with a space between them.

With that print call, you add a seperator. So instead of being seperated by spaces, the unpacked tuple is seperated by 1's. And of course you use the end parameter to end the print statement with 3.

unpacked:
1 2 3

unpacked with 1 as seperator
11213

then to end it all with 3
112133

Answer 2

Read through this Sololearn tutorial about Tuple Unpacking, then run the code below for an example

https://www.sololearn.com/learn/JUMP_LINK__&&__Python__&&__JUMP_LINK/2485/?ref=app

a, b, *c, d = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
print(a)
print(b)
print(c)
print(*c, sep='1')
print(d)