Tuple Introduction

A tuple is a collection which is ordered and unchangeable. In Python tuples are written with round brackets.

Example

Create a Tuple:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
print(thistuple)

Access Tuple Items

You can access tuple items by referring to the index number, inside square brackets:

Example

Print the second item in the tuple:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
print(thistuple[1])

Negative Indexing

Negative indexing means beginning from the end, -1 refers to the last item, -2 refers to the second last item etc.

Example

Print the last item of the tuple:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
print(thistuple[-1])

Range of Indexes

You can specify a range of indexes by specifying where to start and where to end the range.

When specifying a range, the return value will be a new tuple with the specified items.

Example

Return the third, fourth, and fifth item:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange", "kiwi", "melon", "mango")
print(thistuple[2:5])

Range of Negative Indexes

Specify negative indexes if you want to start the search from the end of the tuple:

Example

This example returns the items from index -4 (included) to index -1 (excluded)

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry", "orange", "kiwi", "melon", "mango")
print(thistuple[-4:-1])

Change Tuple Values

Once a tuple is created, you cannot change its values. Tuples are unchangeable, or immutable as it also is called.

But there is a workaround. You can convert the tuple into a list, change the list, and convert the list back into a tuple.

Example

Convert the tuple into a list to be able to change it:

x = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
y = list(x)
y[1] = "kiwi"
x = tuple(y)

print(x) 

Loop Through a Tuple

You can loop through the tuple items by using a for loop.

Example

Iterate through the items and print the values:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
for x in thistuple:
  print(x) 

Check if Item Exists

To determine if a specified item is present in a tuple use the in keyword:

Example

Check if "apple" is present in the tuple:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
if "apple" in thistuple:
  print("Yes, 'apple' is in the fruits tuple")

Tuple Length

To determine how many items a tuple has, use the len() method:

Example

Print the number of items in the tuple:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
print(len(thistuple))

Add Items

Once a tuple is created, you cannot add items to it. Tuples are unchangeable.

Example

You cannot add items to a tuple:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
thistuple[3] = "orange" # This will raise an error
print(thistuple)

Create Tuple With One Item

To create a tuple with only one item, you have add a comma after the item, unless Python will not recognize the variable as a tuple.

Example

One item tuple, remember the commma:

thistuple = ("apple",)
print(type(thistuple))

#NOT a tuple
thistuple = ("apple")
print(type(thistuple))

Remove Items

Tuples are unchangeable, so you cannot remove items from it, but you can delete the tuple completely:

Example

The del keyword can delete the tuple completely:

thistuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")
del thistuple
print(thistuple) #this will raise an error because the tuple no longer exists

Join Two Tuples

To join two or more tuples you can use the + operator:

Example

Join two tuples:

tuple1 = ("a", "b" , "c")
tuple2 = (1, 2, 3)

tuple3 = tuple1 + tuple2
print(tuple3)

The tuple() Constructor

It is also possible to use the tuple() constructor to make a tuple.

Example

Using the tuple() method to make a tuple:

thistuple = tuple(("apple", "banana", "cherry"))#note the double round-brackets
print(thistuple)

Tuple Methods

Python has two built-in methods that you can use on tuples.

Example

Join two tuples:

Method 	Description
count()	Returns the number of times a specified value occurs in a tuple
index()	Searches the tuple for a specified value and returns the position
        of where it was found