Python - Tuples

Tuple is an immutable (unchangeable) collection of elements of different data types. It is an ordered collection, so it preserves the order of elements in which they were defined.

Tuples are defined by enclosing elements in parentheses (), separated by a comma. The following declares a tuple type variable.

Example: Tuple Variable Declaration

tpl=() # empty tuple
print(tpl)  #output: ()

names = ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash') # string tuple
print(names)  #output:('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash')

nums = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) # int tuple
print(nums)  #output:(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

employee=(1, 'Steve', True, 25, 12000)  # heterogeneous data tuple
print(employee)  #output:(1, 'Steve', True, 25, 12000)

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However, it is not necessary to enclose the tuple elements in parentheses. The tuple object can include elements separated by a comma without parentheses.

Example: Tuple Variable Declaration

names = 'Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash' # string tuple
print(names)  #output: ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash')

nums = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 # int tuple
print(nums)  #output: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

employee=1, 'Steve', True, 25, 12000  # heterogeneous data tuple
print(employee)  #output: (1, 'Steve', True, 25, 12000)

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Tuples cannot be declared with a single element unless followed by a comma.

Example: Tuple Variable Declaration

names = ('Jeff') # considered as string type
print(names)  #output: 'Jeff'
print(type(names))  #output: <class 'string'>

names = ('Jeff',) # tuple with single element
print(names)  #output: (Jeff)
print(type(names))  #output: <class 'tuple'>

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Access Tuple Elements

Each element in the tuple is accessed by the index in the square brackets []. An index starts with zero and ends with (number of elements - 1), as shown below.

Example: Access Tuple Elements using Indexes

names = ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash') 
print(names[0]) #output: 'Jeff'
print(names[1]) #output: 'Bill'
print(names[2]) #output: 'Steve'
print(names[3]) #output: 'Yash'

nums = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) 
print(nums[0]) #output: 1
print(nums[1]) #output: 2
print(nums[4]) #output: 5

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The tuple supports negative indexing also, the same as list type. The negative index for the first element starts from -number of elements and ends with -1 for the last element.

Example: Negative Indexing

names = ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash') 
print(names[-4]) #output: 'Jeff'
print(names[-3]) #output: 'Bill'
print(names[-2]) #output: 'Steve'
print(names[-1]) #output: 'Yash'

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If the element at the specified index does not exist, then the error "index out of range" will be thrown.

s = names[5] #IndexError: tuple index out of range

Tuple elements can be unpacked and assigned to variables, as shown below. However, the number of variables must match with the number of elements in a tuple; otherwise, an error will be thrown.

Example: Access Tuple Elements using Indexes

names = ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash') 
a, b, c, d = names # unpack tuple
print(a, b, c, d)

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Update or Delete Tuple Elements

Tuple is unchangeable. So, once a tuple is created, any operation that seeks to change its contents is not allowed. For instance, trying to modify or delete an element of names tuple will result in an error. However, you can delete an entire tuple using the del keyword.

Example: Update/Delete Tuple

names = ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash') 
names[0] = 'Swati' #throws error
del names[0] #throws error
del names #delete names variable

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Tuple Class

The underlying type of a tuple is the tuple class. Check the type of a variable using the type() function.

Example: Tuple Variable Declaration

names = ('Jeff', 'Bill', 'Steve', 'Yash') 
print(type(names)) #output: <class 'tuple'>

nums = (1,2,3,4,5) 
print(type(nums))  #output: <class 'tuple'>

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The tuple() constructor is used to convert any iterable to tuple type.

Example: Tuple Variable Declaration

tpl = tuple('Hello')
print(tpl) #output: ('H','e','l','l','o')

tpl = tuple([1,2,3,4,5])
print(tpl) #output: (1,2,3,4,5)

tpl = tuple({1,2,3,4,5}) # converts set to tuple
print(tpl)  #output: (1,2,3,4,5)

tpl = tuple({1:"One",2:"Two"}) # converts dictionary to tuple
print(tpl)  #output: (1,2)

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Tuple Operations

Like string, tuple objects are also a sequence. Hence, the operators used with strings are also available for the tuple.

Operator	Example
The + operator returns a tuple containing all the elements of the first and the second tuple object.	t1=(1,2,3) t2=(4,5,6) print(t1+t2) #(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) t2+(7,) #(4, 5, 6, 7) Try it
The * operator Concatenates multiple copies of the same tuple.	t1=(1,2,3) t1*4 #(1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3) Try it
The [] operator Returns the item at the given index. A negative index counts the position from the right side.	t1=(1,2,3,4,5,6) t1[3] # 4 t1[-2] #5 Try it
The [:] operator returns the items in the range specified by two index operands separated by the : symbol. If the first operand is omitted, the range starts from zero. If the second operand is omitted, the range goes up to the end of the tuple.	t1=(1,2,3,4,5,6) t1[1:3] #(2, 3) t1[3:] #(4, 5, 6) t1[:3] #(1, 2, 3) Try it
The in operator returns true if an item exists in the given tuple.	t1=(1,2,3,4,5,6) 5 in t1 #True 10 in t1 #False Try it
The not in operator returns true if an item does not exist in the given tuple.	t1=(1,2,3,4,5,6) 4 not in t1 #False 10 not in t1 #True Try it