Tuples in python

In Python, a tuple is a collection of an ordered sequence of items to store the values of different data types. The tuple is the same as?List, but the only

the difference is that the Tuples are immutable which means once you create the tuple object, you are not allowed to make any changes to the tuple object.

In Python, you can create the tuple by enclosing the items within parentheses?( ) And commas must separate the tuple items.

Following is the example of creating a tuple with a different type of items in python.

# Tuple with integer types

a = (30,?10,?20)

# Tuple with string types

b = ("Suresh",?"Rohini",?"Trishi",?"Hanshith")

# Tuple with mix types

c = (10,?"Tutlane",?20)

# Empty Tuple

d = ()

print("a = ", a)

print("b = ", b)

print("c = ", c)

print("d = ", d)

If you observe the above example, we created different tuple objects and printed the tuple object items using the python?print?method.

When you execute the python tuple program, you will get the result below.

a = (30, 10, 20)

b = ('Suresh', 'Rohini', 'Trishi', 'Hanshith')

c = (10, 'Tutlane', 20)

d = ()

Access Elements from Tuple:

In Python, you can access elements from the tuple object by using index values. In a tuple, the index values will always start from?0. If your tuple object

has 4 elements, you can access tuple elements using an index range?of 0?to?3.

Following is the example of accessing the elements from the tuple object in Python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"Tutlane")

print(tpl[0])

print(tpl[2])

print(tpl[3])

If you observe the above example, we are accessing elements from tuple objects using different index values with square brackets?[ ].

When you execute the above Python tuple example, you will get the result as shown below.

10

30

Tutlane

In Python, you can also use negative indexing to access tuple object elements starting from the end. The index value?-1?will refer to the last item,?-

2?refers to the second-last item, and so on.

Following is the example of accessing the elements from the tuple object using negative indexing in python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"Tutlane")

print(tpl[-1])

print(tpl[-2])

print(tpl[-4])

When you execute the above python tuple example, you will get the result as shown below.

Tutlane

30

10

If you try to access the elements from a tuple object that does not exist at the specified index, you will get an index error like “tuple index out of

range”.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"Tutlane")

print(tpl[5])

print(tpl[6])

If you observe the above example, the tuple object has only?4?elements that mean you can access the tuple elements using?0?to?3?index range. Still,

we are trying to access the tuple object elements that don’t exist in the specified index range.

When you try to execute the above python tuple example, you will get an index out of range exception like as shown below.

Traceback (most recent call last):

? File "pythontuple.py", line 2, in <module>

??? print(tpl[5])

IndexError: tuple index out of range

Access Range of Values from Tuple:

In python, if you want to access the range of items from a tuple, you can use index ranging by specifying the starting and ending positions with the

colon (?:?) operator. The index range will return a new tuple with the specified range of items.

The following is the example of accessing the specified range of elements from a tuple using a range of indexes in python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn",?"python")

print(tpl[1:4])

When you execute the above python tuple example, you will get the result as shown below.

(20, 30, 'tutlane')

When you are slicing the tuple by defining the index range values, the search will start from the specified starting index position and end one item

before the ending index position. The index positions will start from?0.

If you observe the above result, the tuple items slicing started from the index position?1?and stopped one item before the end index position?4.

It’s optional to define the starting and ending index positions in python to get the range of values from a tuple. If you skip mentioning the starting index

position, the range will start from the first item the same way if you skip mentioning the ending index position, the range will continue to the end of the

tuple.

Following is the example of getting the range of tuple items with or without specifying the starting and ending index of tuple items.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn",?"python")

# Without index values

print(tpl[:])

# Only starting index

print(tpl[2:])

# Only ending index

print(tpl[:5])

When you execute the above python tuple example, you will get the result as shown below.

(10, 20, 30, 'tutlane', 'learn', 'python')

(30, 'tutlane', 'learn', 'python')

(10, 20, 30, 'tutlane', 'learn')

You can also use negative indexing values in python to get the range of values from the tuple. Following is the example of getting the range of tuple

elements using negative index values.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn",?"python")

print(tpl[-3:-1])

print(tpl[-4:-2])

print(tpl[-2:])

The above python tuple example will return the result as shown below.

('tutlane', 'learn')

(30, 'tutlane')

('learn', 'python')

Create Tuple with One Item:

If you want to create a tuple object with one item, add a comma (,) after the item; otherwise, python will not consider it as a tuple object.

tpl = ("tutlane",)

print(type(tpl))

tpl1 = ("tutlane")

print(type(tpl1))

The above python tuple example will return the result as shown below.

<class 'tuple'>

<class 'str'>

Change Tuple Item Value:

As discussed, tuples are?immutable?so, if you try to change the tuple object by modifying the existing values, you will get an exception like as shown

below.

a = (30,?10,?20,?"tutlane")

a[0] =?50

print("a = ", a)

If you observe the above example, we are trying to change the value of the tuple object. When you execute the above python program, you will get an

exception like as shown below.

Traceback (most recent call last):

? File "D:\pythontuple.py", line 2, in <module>

??? a[0] = 50

TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

Still, there is a way to change or update the tuple object item values. To change the tuple item values first, you need to convert the tuple into a list,

change/update the list item values, and convert the list back into a tuple.

Following is the example of converting the tuple into a list, change list items, and convert the list to a tuple in python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn")

print("Before: ",tpl)

lst =?list(tpl)

lst[1] =?5

lst[3] =?40

lst[4] =?50

tpl =?tuple(lst)

print("After: ",tpl)

When you execute the above python tuple example, you will get the result as shown below.

Before: (10, 20, 30, 'tutlane', 'learn')

After: (10, 5, 30, 40, 50)

Add or Append Items to Tuple:

As discussed, tuple objects are?immutable?so, if you try to add new items to a tuple object, you will get a?TypeError?exception.

tpl = (10,?20,?30)

print("Before: ",tpl)

tpl[3] =?40

tpl[4] =?50

print("After: ",tpl)

The above python tuple example will return the result as shown below.

Traceback (most recent call last):

? File "D:\pythontuple.py", line 3, in <module>

??? tpl[3] = 40

TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

Remove Elements from Tuple:

The tuple object is immutable, so it won’t allow you to remove the tuple elements, but by using the?del?keyword, you can delete the tuple completely.

Following is the example of using?del?keyword to delete the complete tuple object in python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn")

print("Before: ", tpl)

del?tpl

print("After: ", tpl)

The above python tuple example will return the result as shown below.

Before:? (10, 20, 30, 'tutlane', 'learn')

Traceback (most recent call last):

? File "D:\pythontuple.py", line 4, in <module>

??? print("After: ", tpl)

NameError: name 'tpl' is not defined

Tuple Length:

In python, to count the number of items in the tuple, use the?len()?function.

Following is the example of using?len()?function in python to get the tuple length/size.

tpl = (10,?10,?20,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn")

print("Tuple Size: ",?len(tpl))?#Tuple Size: 7

By using?len()?function, you can also check whether the tuple is empty or not like as shown below.

tpl = ()

icount =?len(tpl)

if?icount >?0:

? ??print("Tuple size: ", icount)

else:

? ??print("Tuple is empty")

The above tuple example will return the result as shown below.

Tuple is empty

Join or Concatenate Tuples:

In python, the?+?The operator is useful to join or concatenate multiple tuples and return a new tuple with all the tuples elements.

Following is the example of joining the tuples using?+?operator in python.

tpl1 = (10,?20,?"tutlane")

tpl2 = (10,?"learn",?"python")

tpl3 = tpl1 + tpl2

print(tpl3)

The above tuple example will return the result as shown below.

(10, 20, 'tutlane', 10, 'learn', 'python')

Check If Item Exists in Tuple:

By using?in?and?not in?operators, you can check whether the particular item exists in the tuple object or not.

Following is the example to verify whether the particular exists in the tuple or not using?in?operator in python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn")

print("20 in tuple: ",?20?in?tpl)

print("tutlane in tuple: ",?"tutlane"?in?tpl)

print("50 in tuple: ",?50?in?tpl)

The above tuple example will return the result as shown below.

20 in tuple: True

tutlane in tuple: True

50 in tuple: False

Loop through a Tuple:

By using?for loop, you can loop through the items of tuple object based on your requirements.

Following is the example of looping through the tuple object items using?for loop?in python.

tpl = (10,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"learn")

for?item?in?tpl:

? ??print(item)

The above tuple example will return the result as shown below.

10

20

30

tutlane

learn

Remove Duplicates from Tuple:

To remove duplicates from python tuple objects, you need to use the?dictionary?object?fromkeys()?method because we don’t have any direct method

to remove duplicates from the tuple.

Following is the example of removing the duplicates from a tuple in python.

tpl = (10,?10,?20,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"tutlane")

print("Before: ", tpl)

tpl =?tuple(dict.fromkeys(tpl))

print("After: ", tpl)

Generally, the?dictionary?object will not allow duplicate keys. In the above example, we created a?dictionary?object by considering the tuple (tpl) items

as keys. So, the?dictionary?object will automatically remove the duplicate keys. We converted the?dictionary?object to a tuple.

The above python tuple example will return the result as shown below.

Before: (10, 10, 20, 20, 30, 'tutlane', 'tutlane')

After: (10, 20, 30, 'tutlane')

Python Tuple Methods:

In python, the tuple object has built-in methods to perform operations like a search for the specified value in the tuple and get the number of times a

specified value occurs in the tuple.

Following are the built-in tuple methods available in the python programming language.

• count() - It is useful to get the number of times the specified value occurs in the tuple.
• index() - It is useful to get the index position of the first occurrence of the specified value.

Following is the example of using Tuple methods in python.

tpl = (10,?10,?20,?20,?30,?"tutlane",?"tutlane")

x = tpl.count(20)

y = tpl.index(10)

print(x)

print(y)

The above python tuple example will return the result as shown below.

2

0