A tuple is similar to a list, but it is immutable, which means its values cannot be changed once it is created. Think of a tuple as a collection of items that are ordered and unchangeable.
To create a tuple, you use parentheses () and separate the items with commas. Here's an example:
coordinates = (3, 4)
In this example, we created a tuple called coordinates that contains two items: 3 and 4. The order of the items in the tuple is preserved.
You can access individual items in a tuple by their index, just like with lists. The index starts from 0 for the first item, 1 for the second item, and so on. For example:
print(coordinates[0]) # Output: 3 print(coordinates[1]) # Output: 4
In this code, we use square brackets after the tuple name to access specific items. coordinates[0] gives us the first item in the tuple, which is 3, and coordinates[1] gives us the second item, which is 4.
However, unlike lists, you cannot change the value of an item in a tuple once it is created. If you try to assign a new value to an index in a tuple, you will get an error. For example:
coordinates[0] = 5 # This will give an error
Tuples are commonly used when you want to group related values together, especially when those values should not be modified. For example, you might use a tuple to represent the coordinates of a point in a 2D plane, where the x-coordinate and y-coordinate are fixed.
You can also use tuples to assign multiple variables at once. This is called tuple unpacking. Here's an example:
point = (3, 4) x, y = point print(x) # Output: 3 print(y) # Output: 4
In this code, we assign the values of the tuple point to the variables x and y using tuple unpacking. Now, x will have the value 3 and y will have the value 4.