If you want to split a list into a head and a tail: head, *tail = list_to_split In Python 2, the best way I know of for this is head, tail = list_to_

If you want to split a list into a head and a tail: head, *tail = list_to_split In Python 2, the best way I know of for this is head, tail = list_to_split[0], list_to_split[1:] which is unwieldy.