Hello What is the purpose of * in zip(*capitals.items())? Thank you!

Hey, Thank you for your question! As Giles demonstrates, the output of capitals.items() is a list of tuples, where each tuple stores a key and its corresponding value. For example, a key could be France and its value would be Paris. The purpose of zip(*capitals.items()) is to unzip these key:value pairs into two variables - x and y. x would be the one storing the keys, namely France, Spain, etc, whereas y would be the one storing the values, namely Spain, Madrid, etc. We have separated the key:value pairs. Hope this helps! Kind regards, 365 Hristina

hi Hristina, may i understand what is the meaning or function of * in the above syntax? thanks!

Hey Chan, Thank you for reaching out! The difference between zip(...) and zip(*...) is that the former function zips content while the latter unzips it. Take a look at the example below. I've defined two lists--one storing countries and the other one storing the corresponding capitals. The variable joined is a list of tuples with each tuple storing a country and its corresponding capital--the content is zipped. The variables a and b, on the other hand, store the unzipped content of the joined variable. Hope this helps! Kind regards, 365 Hristina