How to expand lists with one item in RETURN statement

[Andreas Kemmler]

The @ operator expands lists, but sometimes not? Example for Robot Framework 6.0.1 (Python 3.8.0 on win32):

*** test cases ***

tryme

  ${first}  get stuff  1
  log to console  one: ${first}
       

  ${first}  ${second}  get stuff  2
  log to console  two: ${first} ${second}

*** keywords ***

get stuff
      [Arguments]  ${count}
      ${stuff}  create list  foo  bar
      ${ret}  get slice from list  ${stuff}  0  ${count}
      RETURN  @{ret}

Output:

one: ['foo']
two: foo bar

Hmm, why do I get a list in first case?

How can I force list expansion in that case without branching?

[Andreas Kemmler]

Maybe "expand" is the wrong word here. What I mean is rather "unpack".