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Tuples

A tuple is an ordered, immutable (unchangeable) sequence of elements. Tuples are written with round brackets ().

1. Why Tuples?

  1. Safety: Since tuples are immutable, they act as write-protected lists. This ensures data cannot be modified by accident.
  2. Performance: Tuples are faster than lists and use less memory.
  3. Dictionary Keys: Since tuples are immutable, they can be used as keys in dictionaries, whereas lists cannot.

2. Tuple Packing and Unpacking

# Tuple packing
point = (10, 20)

# Tuple unpacking
x, y = point
print(x, y)  # Output: 10 20

# Swapping variables with tuple unpacking
a, b = 5, 10
a, b = b, a
print(a, b)  # Output: 10 5

3. Single-Element Tuple Syntax

To create a tuple with only one element, you must include a trailing comma. Without it, Python will treat it as a regular string/number wrapped in parentheses.

not_a_tuple = (42)   # Evaluates as type int
is_a_tuple = (42,)   # Evaluates as type tuple
print(type(is_a_tuple))  # Output: <class 'tuple'>

4. Named Tuples

From the standard collections module, namedtuple allows you to assign names to each position in a tuple, making your code more readable.

from collections import namedtuple

# Defining a named tuple Point
Point = namedtuple("Point", ["x", "y"])
p = Point(10, 20)

print(p.x, p.y)  # Output: 10 20 (accessed by name instead of index)

Further Reading