A Beginner's Guide to Immutable Tuples

Welcome, aspiring data scientists and coding enthusiasts! Today, we embark on an exciting journey into the world of Python, with a focus on one of its core data structures – tuples. Tuples are a fundamental aspect of Python programming, and understanding them is crucial for anyone looking to excel in data science or any coding language. Let’s dive into the intricacies of tuples with simple explanations, engaging language, and, of course, plenty of code examples. Whether you’re a beginner or seeking a master’s level understanding, this guide has something for you.

What is a Tuple in Python?

A tuple is a collection type in Python that is ordered and immutable. This means that once a tuple is created, its elements cannot be changed, removed, or added to. Tuples are written with round brackets `()` and can contain mixed data types, including integers, strings, and even other tuples.

Why Use Tuples?

Tuples are faster than lists due to their immutability, making them the perfect choice when you have a collection of items that you want to remain constant throughout your program. They are also commonly used for functions that return multiple values and for packing and unpacking data.

The tuple is one of the four data types in Python. The other three are list, set, and dictionary.

Tuples are also a sequence of Python objects. A tuple is created by separating items with a comma like lists and enclosed within ‘(‘ ‘)’.

A single item tuple should use a comma at the end.

A tuple is a variable that is similar to a list. It is used to store multiple values in an ordered collection.
But tuples are unchangeable, so they are referred to as immutable.
Once values are stored (or initialized) in the tuple, they can’t be updated, added, or removed.

1. Create Tuple

Python

# create a tuple named a.
# creating a tuple Requires '(' and ')'
a=()
print(a)

Output

()

Python

# this is a basic look of a tuple
a=(1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
print(a)

Output

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Python

# we can store multiple datatypes in tuple
a=('apple',1,True,3.14)
print(a)

Output

('apple', 1, True, 3.14)

Python

2. Access Tuple Items

Indexing in tuple starts with 0.
The rest of the details for indexing in tuples is similar to lists.
How to access different elements of list.

indexes   0,   1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9
tuplea=   (0,   1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9)
reverse  -10  -9  -8  -7  -6  -5  -4  -3  -2  -1

Indexing in the list starts with 0.
Reverse indexing starts with -1 from the end of the list.
Take reference of indexing with list to understand in more detail

Python

tuplea=(0,   1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9)
tuplea

Output

(0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Python

# Accessing first element in tuplea
tuplea[0]

Output

Python

# Accessing third element in tuplea
tuplea[2]

Output

Python

Reverse Indexes

Reverse indexing with tuples is exactly like lists. It begins with the last item and -1. When we go backwards, it increases like -1, -2, -3, -4 etc.

Python

# access last item from tuple
tuplea[-1]

Output

Python

# access 2nd last item from tuple.
tuplea[-2]

Output

Python

3. Tuple Slicing

Slicing is a functionality provided for filtering out the wanted and unwanted elements from a tuple. First two arguments are start and stop index. Elements under these indices are chosen, and the rest are filtered. The step’s argument adds another quirk to slicing.

If we provide 1, no item in the range will be skipped. If we provide 2 for steps, 2 will be added to the index per loop. And 1 item in 2 will be skipped.

syntax: tuple_name[start_index : stop_index : steps]

Python

# creating tupleb
tupleb=(10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19)
# accesing tuple elements as a group
tupleb[:]

Output

(10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)

Python

# accessing tuple from second item.
tupleb[1:]

Output

(11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)

Python

# acessing tuple till 9th index.
tupleb[:7]

Output

(10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)

Python

# accessing tuple from 4th index to 7th index
tupleb[4:7]

Output

(14, 15, 16)

Python

# acessing tuple from 2 to 9th index.
tupleb[1:9]

Output

(11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)

Python

# acessing tuple from -5 to 9th index.
tupleb[-5:9]

Output

(15, 16, 17, 18)

Python

# acessing tuple from 0 to -5th index.
tupleb[0:-5]

Output

(10, 11, 12, 13, 14)

Python

# use steps to filter out list by skipping elements in patterns
# [start:stop:steps]
#
tuplec=(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20)
# Accessing tuple with step 1.
print(tuplec[::1])

Output

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)

Python

# Accessing tuple with step 2.
print(tuplec[::2])

Output

(1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)

Python

# Accessing tuple with step 2 as 0th index to -1 index.
print(tuplec[0:-1:2])

# Accessing tuple with step 4.
print(tuplec[::4])

Output


(1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)

(1, 5, 9, 13, 17)

Python

4. Nested Tuples

Nested tuples are much like lists in structure and behaviour.
the only difference is that tuples are unchangeable

Accessing The items from nested tuples. Before we try to access the tuple, let’s see how the indexing on the nested tuple works.

As you can see above, 0 to M is the index of the main tuple, which gives access to the sub tuples. And 0 to N will give access to individual elements inside the sub tuple. You can access the tuples by using the following

syntax: matrix[ M_index ][ N_index ]

Python

## Creating a tuple Matrix  with python
Ntuple=(
       (1,2,3),
       (4,5,6),
       (7,8,9),
       (10,11,12),
       (13,14,15)
       )
print(Ntuple)

Output

((1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6), (7, 8, 9), (10, 11, 12), (13, 14, 15))

Python

# Accessing the tuple at 0th index.
print(Ntuple[0])

Output

(1, 2, 3)

Python

# Accessing the 0th item from 0th tuple at Ntuple.
print(Ntuple[0][0])

# Accessing the 1 index item from 3 index tuple at Ntuple.
print(Ntuple[3][1])

Output

1

11

Python

5. Immutability of Tuples

Tuples are immutable, which means you cannot change, add, or remove items once the tuple is created. However, if the element is itself a mutable data type like a list, you can change its contents:

Python

my_tuple = (4, 2, [6, 5])

# This will cause an error
my_tuple[1] = 10

However, you can change a mutable element

Python

my_tuple[2][0] = 9  
print(my_tuple)  # Output: (4, 2, [9, 5])

Delete a Tuple

Python

# Deleting a tuple from del.
del gases

6. Duplicate Unpacking

Tuples can be unpacked using the syntax below.objec1,object2,object3,....,objectn=(value1,value2,value3,.....,valuen)
Keep in mind that the number of objects you unpack into must equal the number of values in the tuple.

Python

# Creating a furniture
furniture=('table','chair','cupboard')
# Unpacking values in x,y,z
x,y,z=furniture
print(x,y,z)

Output

table chair cupboard

Python

**Unpacking tuples with ‘*’**

Tuples can be difficult to unpack if the number of values in the tuple is large. Creating an excessive number of objects may be difficult. This is where * comes in; you can choose to unpack some values while handling the rest in “*object”.

syntax:

object1,object2,*object=(value1,value2,value3,valu4,......value_n)

Python

# Creating a tuple
furniture=('table','chair','cupboard','footstool','sofa','recliner')
# Unpacking a tuple and use * for remaining items.
item1,item2,item3,*rest=furniture
# Printing unpaacked items.
print(item1,item2,item3)

Output

table chair cupboard

Python

# Unpacking the rest of the tuple.
print(rest)

Output

['footstool', 'sofa', 'recliner']

Python

We can avoid the “too many values to unpack” error by using *.

7. Move Through a Tuple

Iterate a Tuple using a for loop iterate with index.
- This is useful for loop traversal.
The while loop

Iterate through the tuple using index.

Python

# Printing furniture.
print(furniture)

# Printing the tuple with for looped index.
for i in range(len(furniture)):
    print(furniture[i])

Output


('table', 'chair', 'cupboard', 'footstool', 'sofa', 'recliner')

table
chair
cupboard
footstool
sofa
recliner

Python

loop traversal within operator.

Python

# Printing the tuple with iterative loop of furniture.
for i in furniture:
    print(i)

Output

table
chair
cupboard
footstool
sofa
recliner

Python

While loop traversal.

Python

# Traversing a tuple loop using while.
i=0
while i<len(furniture):
    print(furniture[i],end='  ')
    i+=1

Output

table  chair  cupboard  footstool  sofa  recliner

Python

8. Iterate through nested tuples

In the following code, we used a for loop to iterate through the first tuple, unpacking all the tuples contained within it.

Python

# Creating a nested tuple.
furniture_cart=(
    ('table',9499),
    ('chair',1999),
    ('cupboard',30749),
    ('footstool',5293),
    ('sofa',19960),
    ('recliner',17370))
print(furniture_cart)

Output

(('table', 9499), ('chair', 1999), ('cupboard', 30749), ('footstool', 5293), ('sofa', 19960), ('recliner', 17370))

Python

# Printing a formatted tuple 
for item,price in furniture_cart:
    print(f'Name:{item} \t Price:{price}')

Output

Name:table 	 Price:9499
Name:chair 	 Price:1999
Name:cupboard 	 Price:30749
Name:footstool 	 Price:5293
Name:sofa 	 Price:19960
Name:recliner 	 Price:17370

Python

Operations on Tuples

Combine Two Tuples
Multiplying Tuples

Connect Two Tuples.

To join a tuple, use the “+” operator. However, because tuples are immutable, we can only reassign them to a variable. Let’s make a few tuples to demonstrate the examples.

Python

# Creating tuples with quotes and authors.
Quote=("The","best","is","yet","to","be","-")
Author=(" Robert","Browning")# Joining tuples with quotes and author.
Quote1=Quote+Author
print(Quote1)

Output

('The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning')

Python

Tuples Multiplication

To multiply quotes, use the “*” operator followed by a number.

Syntax: tuplename*number

The tuples will be multiplied by a number.

Python

# multiplying  Quote1 with 2
Quote1=Quote1*2
print(Quote1)
print(Quote1*2)

Output

('The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning')
('The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning', 'The', 'best', 'is', 'yet', 'to', 'be', '-', ' Robert', 'Browning')

Python

9. Tuple In Built Methods

count()
index()

Let’s Use Quote1 to demonstrate the methods

10. Integrated Functions

These functions are generic in nature.
They can be used on iterable data types.
all() returns true if all elements are empty or true if all elements are true.
any() returns False if the tuple is empty; otherwise, True if any element of the tuple is True.
len() returns the tuple’s length.
enumerate() returns an object iteratively from a tuple.
max() returns the largest element of a tuple.
min() Returns the smallest element of a tuple.
sum() adds the numbers in the tuple together.
sorted() takes the elements of a tuple and returns a new sorted list.
tuple() is used to convert an iterable to a tuple.

Conclusion

Tuples are a powerful feature of Python, offering a way to create immutable sequences of objects. They play a crucial role in Python programming, particularly in situations where an immutable sequence of heterogeneous data is needed. By understanding and using tuples effectively, you can write more efficient and reliable Python code.

Remember, the journey of mastering Python is filled with learning and exploration. Don’t hesitate to experiment with tuples in your projects and explore more advanced features as you progress. Happy coding!

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