Tuples

A tuple (pronounced either like two-ple or tuh-ple) is an immutable data type that are ordered and separated by a comma. A tuple can be created as follows:

      >>> my_tuple = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

      >>> my_tuple

      (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Since tuples are immutable, the value at a given index cannot be modified:

    >>> my_tuple[1] = 3
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment

A tuple can consist of a number, string, or a list. Since lists are mutable, if a list is a member of a tuple, it can be modified. For example:

    >>> my_tuple = 1, 2, 3, 4, [1, 2, 4, 5]
    >>> my_tuple[4][2] = 3
    >>> my_tuple
    (1, 2, 3, 4, [1, 2, 3, 5])

Tuples are especially useful in scenarios where the value cannot be modified. Tuples are also used to return values from a function. Let's consider the following example:

    >>> for value in my_dict.items():

    ... 

    print(value)

    ...

    (1, 'Hello')

    (2, 'World')

    (3, 'I')

    (4, 'am')

    ('test', {'1': 1, '2': 2})

    ('values', [1, 2, 3, 4, 5])

In the preceding example, the items() method returns a list of tuples.