Mastering Tuples in Python: A Comprehensive Guide

Tuples are an essential data structure in Python, offering a convenient way to store ordered and immutable data collections.

In this blog, you’ll learn everything about tuples in Python, including creation, slicing, methods, and more.

Let’s jump right into it!?

Tuples in Python

Tuples are ordered collection of data items. In tuples, you can store multiple items in a single variable.

Tuples are immutable i.e. you can not change them after creation.

Creating Tuples

Tuples are defined using round brackets () and items are separated by commas.

A tuple can contain items of different data types.

For example:

tuple1 = (1,2,36,3,15)
tuple2 = ("Red", "Yellow", "Blue")
tuple3 = (1, "John",12, 5.3)

print(tuple1) # (1, 2, 36, 3, 15)
print(tuple2) # ('Red', 'Yellow', 'Blue')
print(tuple3) # (1, 'John', 12, 5.3)

Single-Item Tuples

To create a tuple with one item, add a comma after the item. Without a comma, Python will treat it as an integer type.

For example:

tuple1 = (1) # This is an integer.
print(type(tuple1)) # <class 'int'>

tuple2 = (1,) # This is a tuple.
print(type(tuple2)) # <class 'tuple'>

Length of Tuple

You can find the length of a tuple (number of items in a tuple) using len() function.

For example:

tuple1 = (1,2,36,3,15)
lengthOfTuple = len(tuple1)

print(lengthOfTuple) # 5

Accessing Tuple Items

You can access tuple items/elements using indexing. Each element has its unique index.

Indexing starts from 0 for the first element, 1 for the second element, and so on.

For example:

fruits = ("Orange", "Apple", "Banana")

print(fruits[0]) # Orange
print(fruits[1]) # Apple
print(fruits[2]) # Banana

You can also access elements from the end of the tuple (-1 for the last element, -2 for the second-to-last element, and so on), this is called negative indexing.

For example:

fruits = ("Orange", "Apple", "Banana")

print(fruits[-1]) # Banana 
print(fruits[-2]) # Apple
print(fruits[-3]) # Orange
# for understanding, you can consider this as fruits[len(fruits)-3]

Check if an item is present in the tuple

You can check whether an element is present in the tuple or not, using the in keyword.

Example 1:

fruits = ("Orange", "Apple", "Banana")
if "Orange" in fruits:
    print("Orange is in the tuple.")
else:
    print("Orange is not in the tuple.")

#Output: Orange is in the tuple.

Example 2:

numbers = (1, 57, 13)
if 7 in numbers:
    print("7 is in the tuple.")
else:
    print("7 is not in the tuple.")

# Output: 7 is not in the tuple.

Slicing Tuples

You can get a range of tuple items by giving start, end and jump(skip) parameters.

Syntax:

tupleName[start : end : jumpIndex]

Note: jump Index is optional.

Example 1:

# Printing elements within a particular range
numbers = (1, 57, 13, 6, 18, 54)

# using positive indexes(this will print the items starting from index 2 and ending at index 4 i.e. (5-1))
print(numbers[2:5]) 

# using negative indexes(this will print the items starting from index -5 and ending at index -3 i.e. (-2-1))
print(numbers[-5:-2])   

Output:

(13, 6, 18)
(57, 13, 6)

Example 2:

When no end index is provided, the interpreter prints all the values till the end.

# Printing all elements from a given index to till the end
numbers = (1, 57, 13, 6, 18, 54)

# using positive indexes
print(numbers[2:])  

# using negative indexes
print(numbers[-5:]) 

Output:

(13, 6, 18, 54)
(57, 13, 6, 18, 54)

Example 3:

When no start index is provided, the interpreter prints all the values from start up to the end index provided.

# Printing all elements from start to a given index
numbers = (1, 57, 13, 6, 18, 54)

#using positive indexes
print(numbers[:4])  

#using negative indexes
print(numbers[:-2]) 

Output:

(1, 57, 13, 6)
(1, 57, 13, 6)

Example 4:

You can print alternate values by giving jump index.

# Printing alternate values
numbers = (1, 57, 13, 6, 18, 54)

# using positive indexes(here start and end indexes are not given and 2 is jump index.)
print(numbers[::2]) 

# using negative indexes(here start index is -2, end index is not given and 2 is jump index.)
print(numbers[-2::2])   

Output:

(1, 13, 18)
(18)

Manipulating Tuples

Tuples are immutable, so items cannot be added, removed, or changed. However, you can convert a tuple to a list, modify the list, and convert it back to a tuple.

For example:

tuple1 = (1,2,36,3,15)
tuple2 = ("Red", "Yellow", "Blue")
tuple3 = (1, "John",12, 5.3)

print(tuple1) # (1, 2, 36, 3, 15)
print(tuple2) # ('Red', 'Yellow', 'Blue')
print(tuple3) # (1, 'John', 12, 5.3)

Concatenating Tuples

You can join two tuples using the operator.

For example:

tuple1 = (1) # This is an integer.
print(type(tuple1)) # <class 'int'>

tuple2 = (1,) # This is a tuple.
print(type(tuple2)) # <class 'tuple'>

Output:

tuple1 = (1,2,36,3,15)
lengthOfTuple = len(tuple1)

print(lengthOfTuple) # 5

Tuple Methods

Tuple has the following built-in methods:

count()

This method returns the number of times an element appears in a tuple.

Syntax:

fruits = ("Orange", "Apple", "Banana")

print(fruits[0]) # Orange
print(fruits[1]) # Apple
print(fruits[2]) # Banana

For example:

fruits = ("Orange", "Apple", "Banana")

print(fruits[-1]) # Banana 
print(fruits[-2]) # Apple
print(fruits[-3]) # Orange
# for understanding, you can consider this as fruits[len(fruits)-3]

index()

This method returns the first occurrence of the given element from the tuple.

Note: This method raises a ValueError if the element is not found in the tuple.

For example:

fruits = ("Orange", "Apple", "Banana")
if "Orange" in fruits:
    print("Orange is in the tuple.")
else:
    print("Orange is not in the tuple.")

#Output: Orange is in the tuple.

You can specify a start index for the search. For example:

numbers = (1, 57, 13)
if 7 in numbers:
    print("7 is in the tuple.")
else:
    print("7 is not in the tuple.")

# Output: 7 is not in the tuple.

That’s all for today.

I hope it was helpful.

Thanks for reading.

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