Python Tuples

Daniel Liu

Aug 27, 2020·2 min read

Overview

Tuples are similar to lists where they are ordered, but unlike lists tuples are immutable. When you try to change a value in a tuple it will throw a type error. Similarly you cannot add or remove values either.

Creating

To create a tuple you use parenthesis instead of square brackets and just provide it the values separated by commas.

x = ('one','two','three')

Another way is to use the tuple constructor but be aware of the extra parenthesis.

x = tuple(('one','two','three'))

You can create a tuple with one value but you need to add a comma.

x = ('one',)
print(x)
>> ('one',)notTuple = ('one')
print(notTuple)
>> 'one'

Read Value

Like lists you can access values by using the index of the tuple.

x = ('one','two','three')
print(x[1])
>> two

Similarly lists you can use negative values and range of index as well.

Updating Values

While it is true you cannot change the values in a tuple there is a work around. By converting the tuple into a list you, change the value and then converting it back into a tuple.

x = ("one", "two", "three")
tupleList = list(x)
tupleList[1] = "four"
x = tuple(tupleList)print(x)
>> ('one', 'four', 'three')

It is possible to add and remove values this way as well.

Delete Tuple

To delete the entire tuple you can use the del keyword.

x = ('one', 'two', 'three')
del x
print(x) # Will throw error because tuple doe snot exist anymore

Joining Tuples

To combine tuples you can use to + operator.

tuple1 = ('one', 'two', 'three')
tuple2 = ('four', 'five', 'six')
tuple3 = tuple1 + tuple2
print(tuple3)
>> ('one', 'two', 'three', 'four', 'five', 'six')

Conclusion

Tuples can be considered lists that are immutable. You might want to use tuples over lists if you want to return multiple results from a function or you want to use keys in a dictionary.