title: Am I safe mixing types in a Python list?
body: <p>Are there unforeseen problems in mixing different types in a Python list? For example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import random
  data = [["name1", "long name1", 1, 2, 3],
          ["name2", "long name2", 5, 6, 7]]
  name, long_name, int1, int2, int3 = random.choice(data)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm using this code to randomly set several related parameters within a function, but even though Python supports it, I'm wary of mixing types like this in a list. Since the list of mixed data types won't be used for any processing besides variable assignment in and of itself (the variables it assigns to will, but not the list itself), I presume this is fine, but I want to make sure this isn't secretly problematic code. </p>