multiplevalue

Multiplevalue refers to the programming concept of producing more than one value as the result of a single operation or function call. Rather than returning a single value or wrapping results in a container, a multiplevalue approach exposes several related results directly to the caller. Different languages implement the idea with varying syntax and semantics, but the core goal is to simplify data transfer when several pieces of information are naturally produced together.

In Lisp dialects such as Common Lisp, multiple values are an explicit language feature. A function can return multiple values using the values primitive, and callers can bind those results with constructs such as multiple-value-bind or nth-value to select components. This enables clean separation between the data produced and the control flow that handles it, without always creating an intermediate structure.

Other languages emulate or approximate multiple values with containers or language features that support destructuring. Python returns a single tuple from a function, which can be unpacked into multiple names via a simple assignment. Go and Rust provide native support for multiple return values, enabling functions to return several independent results directly. JavaScript uses arrays or objects that are destructured to achieve a similar effect. In stack-based languages like PostScript, subroutines can push and return multiple values on the stack, providing another form of multi-value transfer.

Design considerations include benefits such as avoiding wrapper objects and enabling compact APIs for related results, as well as drawbacks like potential ambiguity in destructuring, increased complexity of interfaces, and uneven support across languages. Overall, multiplevalue mechanisms aim to streamline related outputs and improve API expressiveness where appropriate.