Tuple

Tuple
	Chapter 9. Data Structures

Tuples are just like lists except that they are immutable like strings i.e. you cannot modify tuples. Tuples are defined by specifying items separated by commas within a pair of parentheses. Tuples are usually used in cases where a statement or a user-defined function can safely assume that the collection of values i.e. the tuple of values used will not change.

Using Tuples

Example 9.2. Using Tuples

				
#!/usr/bin/python
# Filename: using_tuple.py

zoo = ('wolf', 'elephant', 'penguin')
print 'Number of animals in the zoo is', len(zoo)

new_zoo = ('monkey', 'dolphin', zoo)
print 'Number of animals in the new zoo is', len(new_zoo)
print 'All animals in new zoo are', new_zoo
print 'Animals brought from old zoo are', new_zoo[2]
print 'Last animal brought from old zoo is', new_zoo[2][2]

Output

				
$ python using_tuple.py
Number of animals in the zoo is 3
Number of animals in the new zoo is 3
All animals in new zoo are ('monkey', 'dolphin', ('wolf', 'elephant', 'penguin'))
Animals brought from old zoo are ('wolf', 'elephant', 'penguin')
Last animal brought from old zoo is penguin

How It Works

The variable zoo refers to a tuple of items. We see that the len function can be used to get the length of the tuple. This also indicates that a tuple is a sequence as well.

We are now shifting these animals to a new zoo since the old zoo is being closed. Therefore, the new_zoo tuple contains some animals which are already there along with the animals brought over from the old zoo. Back to reality, note that a tuple within a tuple does not lose its identity.

We can access the items in the tuple by specifying the item's position within a pair of square brackets just like we did for lists. This is called the indexing operator. We access the third item in new_zoo by specifying new_zoo[2] and we access the third item in the third item in the new_zoo tuple by specifying new_zoo[2][2]. This is pretty simple once you've understood the idiom.

Tuple with 0 or 1 items. An empty tuple is constructed by an empty pair of parentheses such as myempty = (). However, a tuple with a single item is not so simple. You have to specify it using a comma following the first (and only) item so that Python can differentiate between a tuple and a pair of parentheses surrounding the object in an expression i.e. you have to specify singleton = (2 , ) if you mean you want a tuple containing the item 2.

Note for Perl programmers

A list within a list does not lose its identity i.e. lists are not flattened as in Perl. The same applies to a tuple within a tuple, or a tuple within a list, or a list within a tuple, etc. As far as Python is concerned, they are just objects stored using another object, that's all.

Tuples and the print statement

One of the most common usage of tuples is with the print statement. Here is an example:

Example 9.3. Output using tuples

				
#!/usr/bin/python
# Filename: print_tuple.py

age = 22
name = 'Swaroop'

print '%s is %d years old' % (name, age)
print 'Why is %s playing with that python?' % name

Output

				
$ python print_tuple.py
Swaroop is 22 years old
Why is Swaroop playing with that python?

How It Works

The print statement can take a string using certain specifications followed by the % symbol followed by a tuple of items matching the specification. The specifications are used to format the output in a certain way. The specification can be like %s for strings and %d for integers. The tuple must have items corresponding to these specifications in the same order.

Observe the first usage where we use %s first and this corresponds to the variable name which is the first item in the tuple and the second specification is %d corresponding to age which is the second item in the tuple.

What Python does here is that it converts each item in the tuple into a string and substitutes that string value into the place of the specification. Therefore the %s is replaced by the value of the variable name and so on.

This usage of the print statement makes writing output extremely easy and avoids lot of string manipulation to achieve the same. It also avoids using commas everywhere as we have done till now.

Most of the time, you can just use the %s specification and let Python take care of the rest for you. This works even for numbers. However, you may want to give the correct specifications since this adds one level of checking that your program is correct.

In the second print statement, we are using a single specification followed by the % symbol followed by a single item - there are no pair of parentheses. This works only in the case where there is a single specification in the string.


List		Dictionary