A tuple in Python is a collection of ordered and unchangeable items of the same data types stored in a single variable.
We can write tuples with round brackets ()
Let’s see how to create a tuple in the code below:
# creating a tuplemytuple = ("apple", "banana", "cherry")print("Tuple # 1: ", mytuple)print(type(mytuple), '\n')tuple2 = (511, "ID", 1.23, 'M')print("Tuple # 2: ", tuple2)
Note: The tuple
mytuplein the code above contains three items andtuple2contains four items of different types.
As we can see from the previous code, mytuple contains three elements. Let’s rewrite the code and create the tuple with just a single element:
# creating a tuplemytuple = ("apple")print(mytuple)print(type(mytuple))
The code above returns a string data type (<class 'str'>), not a tuple. We check the data type of the mytuple using the type() function.
The reason why our code does not return a tuple is that Python does not recognize the code mytuple = ("apple") as a tuple but rather as an str.
To create a tuple with only one item, we need to add a comma(,) after writing the item. Otherwise, Python will not recognize it as a tuple as seen in the previous code. Now let’s apply this logic:
# creating a tuple single item by adding a comma after the itemmytuple = ("apple",)print(mytuple)print(type(mytuple))
We can see from the output of the code (<class 'tuple'>) that we are able to create a tuple with a single item by adding a comma(,) right after the item.