Tuple in Python

Tuple in Python is a collection of objects in a specific order that cannot be changed after the tuple is declared. Therefore, a tuple is immutable.

What is a tuple in Python

A tuple is very similar to an Array. However, unlike the array, it is not possible to change values in a created tuple. This means that once you have created a tuple, the values in the tuple will remain the same until the tuple is removed.

Unlike the array, it is not possible to change values in a Tuple

How to create a Tuple in Python?

Similar to the Array, you create a Tuple by the following steps

• First you give the tuple a name
• Then assigns all values within a parenthesis (), where each value is separated by a comma “,”.
• Note that a tuple is created with parentheses, unlike the array that is created with brackets [].

Syntax: Tuple in Python

So if we use the steps above

tupleName = (value1, value2, value3, and so on.. )

Example: How to create a Tuple in Python

Let’s take a simple example on how to create a Tuple

animal_tuple = ("Cat", "Dog", "Fish", "Horse")

print(animal_tuple)
print(type(animal_tuple))
print(animal_tuple[0])
print(type(animal_tuple[1]))

The result then becomes

('Cat', 'Dog', 'Fish', 'Horse')
<class 'tuple'>
Cat
<class 'str'>

Note, similar to the Array, the index starts at zero. So if we for example write

print(animal_tuple[1])

We will get

Dog

Tuples in Python are immutable

You cannot change the values in a tuple.

Let’s take a short example, say for instance that we want to change our element “Dog” to “Snake”. By using the same method that we used for Array will cause a compilation error. Let’s have a look at the code,

animal_tuple = ("Cat", "Dog", "Fish", "Horse") 

animal_tuple[1] = "Snake"

Will result in

TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

Instead, you must remove the Tuple completely. It can be done through the reserved word del () (delete). You can then re-create the tuple:

So in our case, if we want to change Dog to Snake (element 1 in the animal_tuple), we have to write:

del(animal_tuple) 

animal_tuple = ("Cat", "Snake", "Fish", "Horse")

Therefore, be careful which data type you choose to store values in. If you know that there is a probability that the values will change, Arrays are definitely preferred. For more information about Tuple in Python we recommend the Python Docs website