Python - Tuples

A Tuple is a type of data container in Python which is used to store multiple data in one variable. It can contain elements of different data types. Elements in a tuple are ordered and can be accessed using it's index number. Unlike lists, tuples are immutable and hence elements of a tuple are not changeable.

Create Tuple

Tuple can be created by separating it's elements by comma , and enclosing with round brackets ( ). Additionally, it can also be created using tuple() function.

#Tuple with multiple datatypes Info = ('John', 25, 'London') print(Info) #Creating tuple using constructor colors = tuple(('Red', 'Blue', 'Green')) print(colors) 

The output of the above code will be:

 ('John', 25, 'London') ('Red', 'Blue', 'Green') 

Access element of a Tuple

An element of a tuple can be accessed with it's index number. Index number for tuple in Python starts with 0 in forward direction and -1 in backward direction. The figure below describes the indexing concept of a tuple.

Tuple Indexing:

The example below describes how to access elements of a tuple using its index number.

weekday = ('MON', 'TUE', 'WED', 'THU', 'FRI') #forward indexing print(weekday[1]) #backward indexing print(weekday[-1]) 

The output of the above code will be:

 TUE FRI 

Access range of elements of a Tuple

Range of elements of a tuple can be selected using statement like [startIndex : endIndex] where end_index is excluded. If start_index or end_index are not mentioned then it takes first and last index numbers of the tuple respectively.

weekday = ('MON', 'TUE', 'WED', 'THU', 'FRI') print(weekday[1:3]) print(weekday[-5:-1],"\n") print(weekday[1:]) print(weekday[:-3],"\n") print(weekday[:]) 

The output of the above code will be:

 ('TUE', 'WED') ('MON', 'TUE', 'WED', 'THU') ('TUE', 'WED', 'THU', 'FRI') ('MON', 'TUE') ('MON', 'TUE', 'WED', 'THU', 'FRI') 

Modify value of an Element

Tuple's elements are immutable and unchangeable. However, there is a way around to achieve this. First, change tuple into list using list() function, make required changes and finally, convert it back to tuple using tuple() function.

Info = ('John', 25, 'London') #tuple converted into list Info = list(Info) #Making required changes Info[0] = 'Marry' #list converted back to tuple Info = tuple(Info) print(Info) 

The above code will give the following output:

 ('Marry', 25, 'London') 

Add / Delete elements of a Tuple

Tuple's elements are immutable and unchangeable. Therefore it is not possible to delete or modify elements after creating the tuple.

month = ('JAN', 'FEB', 'MAR') # returns an error month[3] = 'APR' print(month) 

The output of the above code will be:

 TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment 

Similarly, it is not possible to delete an element of a tuple.

month = ('JAN', 'FEB', 'MAR') # returns an error del month[2] print(month) 

The output of the above code will be:

 Traceback (most recent call last): File "Main.py", line 3, in <module> del month[2] TypeError: 'tuple' object doesn't support item deletion 

However, the tuple can be deleted itself using del keyword.

month = ('JAN', 'FEB', 'MAR') # delete tuple completely del month print(month) 

The output of the above code will be:

 Traceback (most recent call last): File "Main.py", line 4, in <module> print(month) NameError: name 'month' is not defined 

Tuple Length

The len() function can be used to find out total number of elements in a list, tuple, set or dictionary.

number = (10, 50, 50, 100, 1000, 1000) print(len(number)) 

The output of the above code will be:

 6 

Loop over Tuple

For loop over Tuple:

for loop can be used to access each element of a tuple.

colors = ('Red', 'Blue', 'Green') for x in colors: print(x) 

The output of the above code will be:

 Red Blue Green 

While loop over Tuple

By using while loop and len() function, each element of a tuple can be accessed.

colors = ('Red', 'Blue', 'Green') i = 0 while i < len(colors): print(colors[i]) i = i + 1 

The above code will give the following output:

 Red Blue Green 

Check an element in the Tuple

colors = ('Red', 'Blue', 'Green') if 'white' in colors: print('Yes, white is an element of colors.') else: print('No, white is not an element of colors.') 

The above code will give the following output:

 No, white is not an element of colors. 

Join Tuples

The + operator can be used to join two tuples into a new tuple.

colors = ('Red', 'Blue', 'Green') numbers = (10, 20) mytuple = colors + numbers print(mytuple) 

The output of the above code will be:

 ('Red', 'Blue', 'Green', 10, 20) 

Single Element Tuple

Add comma , after the element to create single element tuple.

#this is tuple color = ('Red',) print(type(color)) #this is string color = ('Red') print(type(color)) 

The output of the above code will be:

 <class 'tuple'> <class 'str'>