Python Tuples - Tutorial

Tuples in python is an in-built data structure that is efficient we don’t want to modify the contents of a data structure accidentally or intentionally.

A tuple is basically a read-only list i.e. they are immutable. Tuples are represented by parenthesis and items are separated by commas.

Tuples are quite similar to lists in indexing, accessing, etc basic operations. We can’t add a new object or delete an existing object.

Declaration

We just simply create a tuple using parenthesis or directly, python will store the elements as a tuple only.

Code:

Python Code

t1 = (1,2)
t2 = 1,2
print(t1)
# use type() function to get the type of passed arguement
print(type(t2))

Output:

(1, 2)
<class ‘tuple’>

Concatenation of tuples

Just like the simple concatenation of 2 lists, in python, we can perform the same for the tuples.

Code:

Python Code

letters = ( "a", "b", "c" ,"d" ,"e" )
numbers = (1,2,3,4,5)  
combined = letters + numbers
print(combined)

Output: (‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

We can use * operator to repeat tuples.

Code:

Python Code

numbers = (1,2,3,4,5)
num2=numbers * 2
print(num2)

output: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Also, we can convert a list into a tuple using the tuple( iterable ) function which takes an iterable as an argument and we know that lists are iterable in python.

Code:

Python Code

list1=[1,2,3]
t1=tuple(list1)
print(t1)

Output: (1, 2, 3)

Immutable Tuples

To show whether tuples are mutable or not, let us execute the following code:

Code:

Python Code

t1 = (1, 2, 3)
t1[0] = 8
print(t1)

Output:

Slicing Tuples

The tuples are also available for slicing and can be done in similar ways to what we can do in lists. Let us see some examples:

Code:

Python Code

t1 = (1, 2, 3)
print(t1[1:])
print(t1[::-1])
print(t1[2:3])

Output:

Deleting a tuple

Unlike lists, a fraction of the tuple can’t be deleted. We have to completely delete the tuple using the del available in python.

Code:

Python Code

t1=(1,2,3,5)
del t1
print(t1[0])

Output:

Major Differences between Lists & Tuples

Lists	Tuples
Lists are mutable in python.	Tuples are immutable in python.
This can be used when we want to operate over items.	This can be used when we have sufficient tasks or assignments.
Lists support more operations and in-built methods.	Tuples have comparatively low methods and permissions.
Accidental updates and changes are more often in lists.	Since tuples are immutable, accidental updates will lead to errors.

Special thanks to Aryan Goyal for contributing to this article on takeUforward. If you also wish to share your knowledge with the takeUforward fam, please check out this article