Python: What is a tuple?

In Python, tuples are immutable data sequences. They are typically used to group related but heterogeneous values.

Say we have several pieces of information—in a variety of data types—that together describe a single work of art:

artist = "Louise Nevelson"
title = "Sky Gate, New York"
media = ["wood", "oil paint"]
completed = 1978

It may be convenient to group these values together. Since the description of an artwork should never change during our program, an immutable tuple suits our needs perfectly:

artwork = (artist, title, media, completed)

Elements in a tuple can be accessed by index:

>>> artwork[0]
'Louise Nevelson'

But, since tuples are immutable, we cannot change elements by index:

>>> art_work[0] = "Ruth Asawa"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

For more information on tuples, see the Python docs.

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Learn more about Louise Nevelson and Ruth Asawa.

Comments

[Grigor Bezirganyan]

Also, One more interesting usage of tuples is that you can use them as a key for dictionaries. (Dictionaries only accept immutable data types as key)

d = {}
d[(obj1, obj2, obj3)] = value

[miniscruff]

I highly recommend using named tuples when grouping.