{{{c
def pad(text,length,padstr=' '):
  'pads a string with spaces up to a given length, truncates longer strings'
  if len(padstr) == 0:
    raise ValueError("pad string cannot be empty")
  return (text + (padstr*length))[:length]

}}}

=== Destructuring
Arrays
{{{c
a, b = [1,2]
}}}
Dicts
{{{c
from operator import itemgetter

p = {'a': 1, 'b': 2}

a, b = itemgetter('a', 'b')(p)
}}}%TIME=1623958486