Tuples In Python

• Enclosing the elements inside a set of parenthesis (normal brackets), e.g. (‘a’,’b’,’c’)
• Separating items with commas, e.g. ‘a’,’b’,’c’
• Using the function tuple() and passing an iterable such as a list or a tuple, e.g., tuple([‘a’,’b’,’c’])

Create an empty tuple

You can either use empty parenthesis or the function tuple() without any arguments.

emp_tup = ()

Or

emp_tup = tuple()

If you print an empty tuple, it returns parenthesis.

print(emp_tup)
###
()

Creating a tuple with one element

• Enclose inside parenthesis — To create a tuple with one element, always add a comma after the value inside the parenthesis. Without a comma, python assumes you are initializing a single value of a certain data type such as string, integer, etc.

#Correct way
tup1 = ('age',)
print(tup1)
###Output
('age',)
#Wrong way
tup2 = ('age')
print(tup2)
###Output
age

• Using the tuple(iterable) function —  The function tuple() takes in an iterable such as a list, tuple, or set.

#pass in a list
tup1 = tuple(['age']) 
#tuple
tup2 = tuple(('age',))
#set
tup3 = tuple({'age'})
print(tup1, tup2, tup3)
###
('age',) ('age',) ('age',)

Python Training Certification

• Master Your Craft
• Lifetime LMS & Faculty Access
• 24/7 online expert support
• Real-world & Project Based Learning

Explore Curriculum

Creating a tuple of several elements

• Using parenthesis — Enclose the values with parenthesis.

my_tup = ('Lucy',24,'Student')
print(my_tup)
### ('Lucy', 24, 'Student')
print(type(my_tup)
### <class 'tuple'>

• Without parenthesis — Provide the values separated by commas without enclosing them with parenthesis.

my_tup = 'Bill',45,'Banker'
print(my_tup)
### ('Bill', 45, 'Banker')
print(type(my_tup)
### <class 'tuple'>

• Using tuple() function — pass the values as an iterable inside the tuple function.

my_tup = tuple(('Miriam',23,'Marketer'))
print(my_tup)
### ('Miriam', 23, 'Marketer')
print(type(my_tup)
### <class 'tuple'>

Creating a tuple from a list

As demonstrated earlier, we can create a tuple from list by using the tuple(list) function.

my_list = [6,7,8]
tup = tuple(my_list)
print(tup)
###(6, 7, 8)

If you pass a string to the tuple function, it will be split into its constituent characters because a string is essentially a list of characters.

tup = tuple('friend')
print(tup)
###('f', 'r', 'i', 'e', 'n', 'd')

Nesting tuples

This involves creation of a tuple of tuples.

tup1 = ('Levi',16)
tup2 = ('Leo', 15)
tup3 = (tup1, tup2)

Or

tup3 = tuple([tup1,tup2])
print(tup3)
###(('Levi', 16), ('Leo', 15))

Operations you can perform on a tuple

As previously mentioned, tuples cannot be modified after creation. Therefore, most operations involve investigating a tuple and its content.

Determine the size of a tuple

The len() function returns the size or the number of elements in the tuple.

my_tup = ('name','age','occupation')
print(len(my_tup))

Top 30 frequently asked Python Interview Questions!

Subscribe to our youtube channel to get new updates..!

Subscribe

Accessing elements in a tuple

• Return all elements —  Display a tuple using the print() function.

my_tup = (24,'yes',True, 2020)
print(my_tup)
###(24,'yes',True, 2020)
 

You can also use a for-loop to print each element in its line.

for i in my_tup:
    print(i)
###
24
yes
True
2020
 

• Return a single element —   Enclose the index in square brackets like tup[index]. Remember that the index positions begin at zero.

my_tup = (24,'yes',True, 2020)
#index 1 or second element
print(my_tup[1]) 
###yes
#index -1 or last element
print(my_tup[-1]) 
###2020
 

• Return a section (Slicing the tuple) using tup[start:stop: step] — you can extract parts of a tuple using square brackets. Include the start index (included) and stop index(excluded), separated by a colon. An optional argument is a step which is the increment between each index. The result is a list.

tup1 = [20,22,24,26,28,30]
#return from index 1(included)
#to 4(excluded)
print( tup1[1:4] )
###[22, 24, 26]
#from the last index to the end
print( tup1[-1:] )
###[30]
#from the beginning to the end, 
#increasing by 2
print( tup1[::2] )
###[20, 24, 28]
#from start to end, 
#in reverse direction
print( tup1[::-1] )
###[30, 28, 26, 24, 22, 20]

tup1 = (20,22,24,26,28,30)
print(max(tup1))
print(min(tup1))
print(sum(tup1))
###
30
20
150

tup2 = ('shela','zoe','anna')
print(max(tup2))
print(min(tup2))
###
zoe
anna

del my_tup

Applications of a tuple

• To store data that you want to protect against change.
• Tuples are also handy for storing data where the index of each item has a special meaning. For example, coordinate pairs such as (-1.2921, 36.8219) where index 0 is the latitude and 1 the longitude. Another example is storing the RGB colors for a GUI object such as (255,255,0), where the indices represent red, green, and blue colors.
• Because they cannot be modified, tuples can be used as keys in dictionaries

If you want to Explore more about Python? then read our updated article - Python Tutorial.