Tuples

Introduction

In this lesson we will look at how to use tuples in Python:

• What is a tuple?
• Creating tuples
• Accessing elements
• Packing and unpacking tuples
• Tuple operations

What is a tuple?

Python tuples are very similar to Python lists.

They have a neater notation, which means they often get used for "quick" or temporary lists. Also, unlike a list, once you have created a tuple, you cannot change it.

You should read and understand the lists topic before you learn about tuples.

Creating a tuple

You can create a tuple using round brackets (). A tuple can contain any type of data, for example, numbers or strings. A tuple can contain a mixture of different types of data. Exactly like a list.

a = (1, 2, 3)
b = ('red', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue')
c = (4, 'pair', 'dozen', 15)

Creating an empty tuple

You can create an empty tuple as you might expect:

d = ()

Creating a tuple with just one element is a little bit tricky. You can't do this:

e = (3)  #Wrong!

The problem is that this code will simply set e equal to integer 3. To see the problem, look at this code:

x = 1 + (3)

The brackets around the (3) aren't necessary, but you are allowed to put them in if you want. Python will evaluate the expression correctly (it will result in the value 4, of course). You wouldn't want Python to randomly create a tuple.

Instead you should do this:

e = (3,)

The extra comma tells Python that you really do want a tuple with one element.

Accessing elements

If you want to access individual elements, it is exactly the same as for a list:

a = (1, 2, 3)
x = a[2]

This reads element index 2 from the tuple and puts its value into variable x.

Note that you cannot set elements in a tuple. Remember, once a tuple is created you can't change it:

b = ('red', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue')
b[1] = 'orange'  #Gives an error!

Packing and unpacking tuples

Packing is one of the things which sets tuples apart from lists.

Packing a tuple

Packing is a simple syntax which lets you create tuples "on the fly" without using the normal notation:

a = 1, 2, 3

This creates a tuple of 3 values and assigned it to a. Comparing this to the "normal" way:

a = (1, 2, 3)

OK, maybe it doesn't seem like much, but read on.

Unpacking a tuple

You can also go the other way, and unpack the values from a tuple into separate variables:

a = 1, 2, 3
x, y, z = a

After running this code, we will have x set to 1, y set to 2 and z set to 3. The value of the tuple a is unpacked into the 3 variables x, y and z. Note that the number of variables has to exactly match the number of elements in the tuple, or there will be an error.

Real-life examples

Here is where it gets interesting. In the code above, the variable a is just used as a temporary store for the tuple. Why not leave out the middle-man and do this:

x, y, z = 1, 2, 3

After running this code, as before, we will have x set to 1, y set to 2 and z set to 3.

Now it would be easy to look at that code and say, sure, Python has a special syntax for setting up multiple variables. But that isn't what is really happening. First the values are packed into a tuple:

Next, the tuple is assigned to the left-hand side of the = sign:

Finally, the tuple is unpacked into the variables:

Here is another example:

a = 5
b = 7
b, a = a, b

So what does that do? At first, you might scratch your head and wonder what on earth is going on.

But in fact, it is quite simple. First, a and b get packed into a tuple. Then the tuple gets unpacked again, but this time into variables b then a. So the values get swapped!

For a final example, let's see how tuple packing can be used with functions. A function is a bit of code that you can call to calculate a value. It can only return a single value. In this case, it is today's date (as a string):

def getDate():
    #Get the date from the system in some way
    return(date)

We can call it like this:

s = getDate()
print(s)

Now suppose we wanted to create a function that returns the current screen position of the mouse cursor. Clearly, this requires two values, the (x, y) position. Here is a neat way to do it:

def getMousePos():
    #Get the mouse position the system in some way
    return x, y

Do you recognise this? It is the tuple packing notation. x and y are packed into a tuple, which is a single value that can be returned by the function.

When you call the function, you can do the same thing in reverse:

u, v = getMousePos()
print(u, v)

Here you are unpacking the two values into variables u and v. It might look as if Python has some special syntax for passing back multiple values, but it doesn't … it is just tuples.

Tuple operations

Tuples use the same functions and constructs as lists, except of course you cannot do anything to modify a tuple.

Tuple slices

You can uses slices with tuples:

a = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']
y = a[1:4]     #slice: ('b', 'c', 'd'), an list of elements 1, 2, and 3

If you take a slice of a tuple, you get a new tuple (and of course, if you take a slice of a list, you get a new list).

You cannot delete a slice of a tuple, because that would change the tuple itself, which isn't allowed - tuples are immutable.

Adding elements to a tuple

You cannot use append(), insert() or extend() to add extra elements to a tuple, because that would be changing the tuple.

You can add two tuples, because that just creates a new tuple (it doesn't change a or b):

a = (1, 2, 3)
b = (10, 20, 30)
c = a + b
print c    #(1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30)

You can do something a bit like the insert() function using slices:

a = (10, 20, 30, 40, 50)
x = a[:2] + ['apple', 'pear'] + a[2:]   #x = (10, 20, 'apple', 'pear', 30, 40, 50)

Once again, this creates a new tuple, rather than modifying the existing tuple.

Finding elements

You can use the count() and index() functions to find elements in a tuple. You can use the in and not in operators to check for membership. The len() function also works with tuples.

Removing elements

You cannot use remove(), del or clear() on a tuple, for the obvious reason, again, that you cannot change a tuple. You can create a new tuple, with some of the elements removed.

Looping

The list looping techniques work perfectly well with tuples:

t = ('red', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue')
for x in t
    print(x)

In case of emergency…

If you really must use list functions with a tuple, there is a function list() which will make a list out of anything it can, including a tuple:

t = ('red', 'yellow', 'green', 'blue')
k = list(t)
k.sort()
print(k)

Even in this case, you are not actually changing the tuple, only the list copy of it.

See also

• Using Python as a calculator
• Hello, world!
• Strings
• Loops
• If statements
• Lists
• Programming logic
• More loops
• Functions
• Slices
• Exceptions
• Files
• CSV files