Everything You Need to Know About Tuples in Python

Tuples in Python are gaining popularity & have become an inevitable part of Python.

The meteoric rise in popularity index of Python has made it the leader of the pack of languages like PHP, SWIFT, and Objective-C.

Since the last two years, Python has been competing for Number 1 position on the TIOBE Index with two-decades-old languages C, C++, and Java.

Even 2018 witnessed a rise in the popularity of Python as it ranked no. 3 on the TIOBE Index and was declared as the language of the year.

The far and wide popularity of Python pushed it to Rank#1 on other popular indices like IEEE Spectrum ranking and PYPL Popularity of Programming Language.

What is Driving the Popularity of Python & Tuples in Python?

According to the IEEE’s annual report on programming languages, Python has been gaining surpassing popularity because of the below reasons:

(i) Increasing the popularity of application of Machine Learning

(ii) Python is listed as an embedded language to work with microcontrollers

(iii) The decline in the popularity of R for Big Data

Why You Must Consider Writing Your Next Software Applications as Lists or Tuples in Python?

The popularity of Python is not by luck. As a general-purpose and high-level programming language, Python allows the developer to focus on the development of the core functionality.

The simplicity of the syntax and inherent qualities to make programming easy are few reasons that spark the interest of developers.

Let us check out in detail the advantage of Python, what are tuples in python, what are list in Python, sort tuples in python and what makes coding and code maintenance a cakewalk even for the beginners:

(i) Structured Programming

The modern programming languages like Python are object-oriented and tuples in Python is one of the simple data structure for grouping arbitrary objects.

The features like functional, structured, Object Oriented, Aspect-Oriented programming, and list of tuples in Python make Python a multi-paradigm language.

The memory manager of Python offers varied components that make dynamic memory management feasible.

This also makes Python an agile language that allows efficient sharing, segmentation, pre-allocation or caching.

(ii) Code Readability & Code Maintenance

Readability is a much-emphasized parameter of any programming language. Python language serves the developers right as the syntax rules of the language make the use of English like coding language.

It replaces the punctuations with simple English keywords, thus avoiding the need for writing additional code.

The readability of Python ensures the code is easy to debug, maintain and update.

Coding tuples in python and utilizing tuple unpacking (multiple assignments) makes the code even more easily readable as multiple variables are assigned at the same time in one line of code.

Why You Should Learn Python as Your First Language?

(i) Compatibility

Python’s operating system support is quite versatile. Apart from supporting Windows and MacOS, it is also the fastest-growing language for embedded computing.

As complex as the embedded algorithms is, using Python to code these algorithms hassle-free writability, error reduction, and readability of the code.

With the use of Python interpreter, the same code can be run on multiple platforms without the need for recompilation.

The changes made to the code immediately reflect the desired results thus Python significantly reduces the debugging or rework time.

(ii) Expansive Standard Library

Python’s standard library is among the most extensive ones. The documentation offers a wide range of facilities with which the developers can explore Python.

The library contains ready to use modules and supports a list of tuples in Python that make it easy to access system functionality thus saving developers a lot of time.

Operations like the file I/O is part of the standard Python library. The modules offered by the library enhance the code portability as more the usage of standard code, it is easy to move it from platform to platform.

Using function tuple() is also a built-in standard to be used to create a tuple in Python.

Furthermore, for building web applications in Python, specific modules existing in the libraries can be used to implement functionalities like web services, manage operating system interface performs string operations or more.

More information about the standard functions is available in Python Standard Library documentation.

(iii) Open Source Advantage

Python is an open-source programming language and that plays a major role in rapid market popularity.

As the multiple frameworks and tools for Python are available free of cost, the development cost and time of the products comes down significantly.

Apart from that, the tuples in Python are stored in a single block of memory so that new objects do not require more space which brings down the memory usages.

The stack frameworks of Python are very famous among developers as they help developers build form validation, form generators, and template layouts without too much coding. Frameworks like Django, Web2py, TurboGears, Flask, and Pyramid are few of the most utilized ones.

(iv) Takes away complexity

As a general-purpose a programming language that is interpreted, dynamically-typed, and high-level language, Python makes coding easy.

Python gained popularity among data scientists and Machine Learning developers because of its data analysis and visualization advantages.

Without too much coding effort, custom solutions that are complex like the ones that need Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning and more become less complex.

(v) TDD Approach

Prototype testing has gained a lot of traction in the market recently. Business wants to test a prototype before they give go-ahead for the entire project.

Using Python makes it easy to create a prototype quickly. The approach is popularly known as the Test-driven development (TDD) approach, so using Python while the developer is coding, he can test the changes without recompiling the code and the changes are reflected instantly.

What are Tuples in Python? How is it better than Lists in Python?

Before we sit down to compare the two, we need to explain both lists, tuples, and list of tuples in python in detail:

(i) Python Lists

It is a collection of arbitrary objects which is closely related to an array that is used in other popular programming languages.

The advantage of Lists in Python is that it is more flexible. Lists need to be are defined in the code.

The syntax is quite simple and is defined by enclosing a list of object in the square brackets and the objects are separated by commas.

Important features of Python lists are:

(i) Lists are mutable which means it can be changed once defined.

(ii) Lists are ordered which means the objects are accessible on the basis of the position

(iii) Lists can contain any type of objects (integer, float, string, etc.), any number of objects or another list called Nested List.

(iv) List elements can be accessed only by the position which is identified by the index.

(v) Lists can be modified at the runtime making the objects dynamic.

(ii) Python Tuples

Answering what are tuples in Python becomes easy once we have explained the Lists. It is a variant of lists in Python and offers a different way to represent an ordered collection of objects.

Quite similar to the list, tuples in Python are immutable as opposed to a list. By saying the tuples are immutable we mean the elements of a tuple cannot be changed once assigned.

Python is also known to support negative indexing and for the tuples, it starts at the end. It at times proves to be time-saving to use negative indexing especially when the length of tuples in python is not known.

Know more about Tuples in detail in the below video:

Advantages of Tuples in Python over List

Tuples and lists are used in Python programming quite interchangeably but Tuples offers some advantages over the list.

(i) Object Classification

Tuples are mostly used when the object list or data types are heterogeneous or different. The list finds its use for a homogeneous set of datatypes.

(ii) Performance Advantage

Tuples in Python are immutable thus the iteration through the datatypes is expedited as compared to the tuples leading to better performance of the code.

(iii) Dictionary Set Up

As Tuples are holding immutable elements, they make a key for a dictionary. With a list, the objects are mutable thus a key definition is not feasible.

(iv) Write-Protected Data

If you want to store the data that doesn’t change during runtime and want to safeguard it, defining it in a tuple is the best way to achieve immutability.

How is a Tuple Created & What is Done to Sort Tuples in Python?

It is simple to create a tuple. All the object types are placed inside parentheses (). Each object is separated by a comma.

Remember in case of list square brackets are used to create a list. The use of parentheses in tuples stands optional but increases the code readability.

How to Sort Tuples in Python?

As defined, tuples are immutable arrays that cannot be modified thus these functions are devoid of an in-place sort function. After defining as a tuple, an explicit sort function needs to be coded.

Example

To Wrap

Just like any other programming language, Python has a few shortcomings that range from missing a few built-in features that are available in modern languages.

But the frameworks and tools available makeup for this missing feature and allow developers to build customized software products that are easy to debug, maintain and update.

The availability of an expansive set of frameworks and tools in Python Libraries makes it an ideal choice for developers to deliver products within aggressive timelines.

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