Tuples in Python: Indexing, Slicing, Packing, Unpacking, Concatenation, Repetition, Comparison, Membership, Iteration

Tuples are one of the basic data types in Python. Tuples are widely used in Python programming and have very simple syntax. In this article, we will see various Tuple operations like indexing, slicing, packing, unpacking, comparison, concatenation, repetition, updating and deleting a tuple, in-built functions for tuples, membership, iteration etc.

You can also download my Jupyter notebook containing below code.

Declaration

tup1 = ()
tup2 = (50, )
tup3 = (50, 8)
tup4 = 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'
x, y = 1, 2;
print(tup1, tup2, tup3, tup4)
print(x, y)

Output

() (50,) (50, 8) ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd')
1 2

Indexing and Slicing

tup5 = ('a', 'b', 100, 'abc', 'xyz', 2.5);
tup6 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
print(tup5[0], tup5[1], tup5[-1], tup5[-2])
print(tup6[0:4])
print(tup6[:])
print(tup6[:4])
print(tup6[1:])
print(tup6[1:4])
print(tup6[1:-1])
print(tup6[1:-2])

Output

a b 2.5 xyz
(1, 2, 3, 4)
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
(1, 2, 3, 4)
(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
(2, 3, 4)
(2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
(2, 3, 4, 5)

Packing and Unpacking

In packing, we place value into a new tuple while in unpacking we extract those values back into variables.

x = ('Google', 208987, 'Software Engineer')
print(x[1])
print(x[-1])
(company, emp_no, profile) = x
print(company)
print(emp_no)
print(profile)

Output

208987
Software Engineer
Google
208987
Software Engineer

Comparison

a = (5, 6)
b = (1, 4)
if(a > b): print('a is bigger')
else: print('b is bigger')

Output: a is bigger

a = (5, 6)
b = (5, 4)
if(a > b): print('a is bigger')
else: print('b is bigger')

Output: a is bigger

a = (5, 6)
b = (6, 4)
if(a > b): print('a is bigger')
else: print('b is bigger')

Output: b is bigger

Concatenation

a = (1, 1.5)
b = ('abc', 'xyz')
c = a + b
print(c)

Output: (1, 1.5, 'abc', 'xyz')

Repetition

a = (1, 1.5)
b = a * 3
print(b)

Output: (1, 1.5, 1, 1.5, 1, 1.5)

Update Tuple

Tuples are immutable which means you cannot update or change the values of tuple elements. It does not support item assignment.

a = (1, 1.5)
b = ('abc', 'xyz')
a[0] = 2; #TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

Delete Tuple

Tuples are immutable and cannot be deleted, but deleting tuple entirely is possible by using the keyword "del."

a = (5, 6)
print(a)
del a
print(a)  #NameError: name 'a' is not defined

In-built Functions

a = (5, 2, 8, 3, 6, 2, 5, 5)
print('Length:', len(a))
print('Min:', min(a))
print('Max:', max(a))
print('Count of 5:', a.count(5))
print('Index of 2:', a.index(2))
print('Sorted:', sorted(a))
print('Tuple:', tuple(a))
print('List:', list(a))

Output

Length: 8
Min: 2
Max: 8
Count of 5: 3
Index of 2: 1
Sorted: [2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6, 8]
Tuple: (5, 2, 8, 3, 6, 2, 5, 5)
List: [5, 2, 8, 3, 6, 2, 5, 5]

Membership

3 in (1, 2, 3)

Output: True

tuple_alphabets = ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e')
if 'c' in tuple_alphabets:
    print('Found')
else:
    print('Not Found')

Output: Found

Iteration

Iterating through tuple is faster than with list, since tuples are immutable.

for x in (1, 2, 3): 
    print (x)

Output

1
2
3

Tuple in Dictionary

Dictionary can return the list of tuples by calling items, where each tuple is a key value pair.

a = {'x':100, 'y':200}
b = (a.items())
c = list(a.items())
print(a)
print(b) 
print(c)

Output

{'x': 100, 'y': 200}
dict_items([('x', 100), ('y', 200)])
[('x', 100), ('y', 200)]