def get_properties(self, names):
        """Returns values for a group of properties in one call.
        
        The names of the properties to get are specified using the @a names
        argument which is a list of comma-separated property names or
        an empty string if all properties are to be returned.
        Currently the value of this argument is ignored and the method
        always returns all existing properties.
        
        The list of all properties supported by the given medium format can
        be obtained with :py:func:`IMediumFormat.describe_properties` .
        
        The method returns two arrays, the array of property names corresponding
        to the @a names argument and the current values of these properties.
        Both arrays have the same number of elements with each element at the
        given index in the first array corresponds to an element at the same
        index in the second array.
        
        For properties that do not have assigned values, an empty string is
        returned at the appropriate index in the @a returnValues array.

        in names of type str
            Names of properties to get.

        out return_names of type str
            Names of returned properties.

        return return_values of type str
            Values of returned properties.

        """
        if not isinstance(names, basestring):
            raise TypeError("names can only be an instance of type basestring")
        (return_values, return_names) = self._call("getProperties",
                     in_p=[names])
        return (return_values, return_names)