Python - Tuples
A tuple is a sequence of immutable Python objects. Tuples are
sequences, just like lists. The only difference is that tuples can't
be changed ie. tuples are immutable and tuples use parentheses
and lists use square brackets.
Creating a tuple is as simple as putting different comma-
separated values and optionally you can put these comma-
separated values between parentheses also. For example:
tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);
tup2 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 );
tup3 = "a", "b", "c", "d";
The empty tuple is written as two parentheses containing nothing:
tup1 = ();
To write a tuple containing a single value you have to include a
comma, even though there is only one value:
tup1 = (50,);
Like string indices, tuple indices start at 0, and tuples can be
sliced, concatenated and so on.
Accessing Values in Tuples:
To access values in tuple, use the square brackets for
slicing along with the index or indices to obtain value
available at that index:
Example:
tup1 = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);
tup2 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 );
print "tup1[0]: ", tup1[0]
print "tup2[1:5]: “, tup2[1:5]
This will produce following result:
tup1[0]: physics
tup2[1:5]: [2, 3, 4, 5]
Updating Tuples:
Tuples are immutable which means you cannot update
them or change values of tuple elements. But we able able
to take portions of an existing tuples to create a new
tuples as follows:
Example:
tup1 = (12, 34.56);
tup2 = ('abc', 'xyz');
tup3 = tup1 + tup2;
print tup3;
This will produce following result:
(12, 34.56, 'abc', 'xyz')
Delete Tuple Elements:
Removing individual tuple elements is not possible. There
is, of course, nothing wrong with putting together another
tuple with the undesired elements discarded.
To explicitly remove an entire tuple, just use the del
statement:
Example:
tup = ('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000);
print tup;
del tup;
print "After deleting tup : " print tup;
This will produce following result.
('physics', 'chemistry', 1997, 2000)
After deleting tup : Traceback (most recent call last):
File "[Link]", line 9, in <module> print tup;
NameError: name 'tup' is not defined
Basic Tuples Operations:
Tuples respond to the + and * operators much like strings;
they mean concatenation and repetition here too, except
that the result is a new tuple, not a string.
In fact, tuples respond to all of the general sequence
operations we used on strings in the prior chapter :
Python Expression Results Description
len((1, 2, 3)) 3 Length
(1, 2, 3) + (4, 5, 6) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) Concatenation
['Hi!'] * 4 ('Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!', 'Hi!') Repetition
3 in (1, 2, 3) TRUE Membership
for x in (1, 2, 3): print 1 2 3 Iteration
x,
Indexing, Slicing, and Matrixes:
Because tuples are sequences, indexing and slicing work
the same way for tuples as they do for strings.
Assuming following input:
L = ('spam', 'Spam', 'SPAM!')
Python
Results Description
Expression
L[2] 'SPAM!' Offsets start at zero
L[-2] 'Spam' Negative: count from the right
L[1:] ['Spam', 'SPAM!'] Slicing fetches sections
No Enclosing Delimiters:
Any set of multiple objects, comma-separated, written
without identifying symbols, i.e., brackets for lists,
parentheses for tuples, etc., default to tuples, as indicated
in these short examples:
print 'abc', -4.24e93, 18+6.6j, 'xyz';
u, v = 1, 2;
print "Value of u , v : ", u,v;
print var;
This will reduce following result:
abc -4.24e+93 (18+6.6j) xyz
Value of u , v : 1 2
Built-in Tuple Functions:
SN Function with Description
1 cmp(tuple1, tuple2)
Compares elements of both tuples.
2 len(tuple)
Gives the total length of the tuple.
3 max(tuple)
Returns item from the tuple with max value.
4 min(tuple)
Returns item from the tuple with min value.
5 tuple(seq)
Converts a list into tuple.
# Python 2
t1 = (1, 2, 3)
t2 = (1, 2, 4)
print(cmp(t1, t2)) # -1 (because t1 < t2)
Returns 0 if t1 == t2
Returns -1 if t1 < t2
Returns 1 if t1 > t2
Program:
Write a Python program to convert a tuple to a string.
Write a Python program to get the 4th element from the
last element of a tuple.
Write a Python program to create the clone of a tuple.
Write a Python program to check whether an element
exists within a tuple.
Write a Python program to convert a list to a tuple.
Write a Python program to remove an item from a
tuple.
Write a Python program to reverse a tuple.
Write a Python program to calculate the product all the
numbers in a given tuple.