What are Python Tuples?
In Python, a tuple is an immutable sequence of elements. It is similar to a list, but unlike lists, tuples cannot be modified once they are created. Tuples are defined by enclosing a comma-separated sequence of values in parentheses.
Here is an example of a tuple:
my_tuple = (1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c')
In this example, the tuple my_tuple contains six elements – three integers and three strings.
Accessing Tuple Elements
You can access individual elements of a tuple using indexing, similar to how you access elements in a list. The index of the first element is 0, the second element is 1, and so on. Here is an example:
my_tuple = (1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c') print(my_tuple[0]) # Output: 1 print(my_tuple[3]) # Output: 'a'
In this example, we access the first element of the tuple (my_tuple[0]) and the fourth element (my_tuple[3]).
Iterating Over a Tuple
You can use a for loop to iterate over the elements of a tuple. Here is an example:
my_tuple = (1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c')
for element in my_tuple:
print(element)
This will output each element of the tuple on a new line:
1 2 3 a b c
Tuple Operations
Tuples support various operations, including concatenation and repetition.
Concatenation: You can concatenate two tuples using the ‘+’ operator. Here is an example:
tuple1 = (1, 2, 3)
tuple2 = ('a', 'b', 'c')
concatenated_tuple = tuple1 + tuple2
print(concatenated_tuple) # Output: (1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c')
In this example, the tuples tuple1 and tuple2 are concatenated to create a new tuple concatenated_tuple.
Repetition: You can repeat a tuple using the ‘*’ operator. Here is an example:
my_tuple = (1, 2, 3) repeated_tuple = my_tuple * 3 print(repeated_tuple) # Output: (1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3)
In this example, the tuple my_tuple is repeated three times to create a new tuple repeated_tuple.
Tuple Methods
Tuples have a few built-in methods that allow you to perform operations on them.
count: The count() method returns the number of times a specified element appears in a tuple. Here is an example:
my_tuple = (1, 2, 3, 2, 2, 'a', 'b', 'c') count = my_tuple.count(2) print(count) # Output: 3
In this example, the count() method is used to count the number of occurrences of the element 2 in the tuple my_tuple.
index: The index() method returns the index of the first occurrence of a specified element in a tuple. Here is an example:
my_tuple = (1, 2, 3, 'a', 'b', 'c')
index = my_tuple.index('a')
print(index) # Output: 3
In this example, the index() method is used to find the index of the element ‘a’ in the tuple my_tuple.
Summary
Tuples are immutable sequences of elements in Python. They can be accessed using indexing and can be iterated over using a for loop. Tuples support concatenation and repetition operations. They also have built-in methods like count() and index() for performing operations on them.