Python programming Sequence Datatypes -Tuples

Tuples are like lists
• Tuples are another kind of sequence that function much
like a list - they have elements which are indexed
starting at 0
>>> x = ('Glenn', 'Sally', 'Joseph')
>>> print x[2]Joseph
>>> y = ( 1, 9, 2 )
>>> print y
(1, 9, 2)
>>> print max(y)
9
>>> for iter in y:
... print iter
...
1
9
2
>>>

..but.. Tuples are "immutable"
• Unlike a list, once you create a tuple, you cannot alter
its contents - similar to a string
>>> x = [9, 8, 7]
>>> x[2] = 6
>>> print x[9, 8, 6]
>>>
>>> y = 'ABC’
>>> y[2] = 'D’
Traceback:'str'
object does
not support item
Assignment
>>>
>>> z = (5, 4,
3)>>> z[2] = 0
Traceback:'tuple'
object does
not support item
Assignment
>>>

Things not to do with tuples
>>> x = (3, 2, 1)
>>> x.sort()
Traceback:AttributeError: 'tuple' object has no
attribute 'sort’
>>> x.append(5)
attribute 'append’
>>> x.reverse()
attribute 'reverse’
>>>

A Tale of Two Sequences
>>> l = list()
>>> dir(l)[
'append', 'count', 'extend', 'index', 'insert',
'pop', 'remove', 'reverse', 'sort']
>>> t = tuple()
>>> dir(t)
['count', 'index']

Tuples are more efficient
• Since Python does not have to build tuple structures to
be modifiable, they are simpler and more efficient in
terms of memory use and performance than lists
• So in our program when we are making "temporary
variables" we prefer tuples over lists.

Tuples and Assignment
• We can also put a tuple on the left hand side of an
assignment statement
• We can even omit the parenthesis
>>> (x, y) = (4, 'fred')
>>> print y
Fred
>>> (a, b) = (99, 98)
>>> print a
99

Tuples and
Dictionaries
• The items() method
in dictionaries returns
a list of (key, value)
tuples
>>> d = dict()
>>> d['csev'] = 2
>>> d['cwen'] = 4
>>> for (k,v) in d.items():
... print k, v
...
csev 2
cwen 4
>>> tups = d.items()
>>> print tups
[('csev', 2), ('cwen', 4)]

Tuples are Comparable
• The comparison operators work with tuples and other
sequences If the first item is equal, Python goes on to
the next element, and so on, until it finds elements that
differ.
>>> (0, 1, 2) < (5, 1, 2)
True
>>> (0, 1, 2000000) < (0, 3, 4)
True
>>> ( 'Jones', 'Sally' ) < ('Jones', 'Sam')
True
>>> ( 'Jones', 'Sally') > ('Adams', 'Sam')
True

Sorting Lists of Tuples
• We can take advantage of the ability to sort a list of
tuples to get a sorted version of a dictionary
• First we sort the dictionary by the key using the items()
method
>>> d = {'a':10, 'b':1, 'c':22}
>>> t = d.items()
>>> t
[('a', 10), ('c', 22), ('b', 1)]
>>> t.sort()
>>> t
[('a', 10), ('b', 1), ('c', 22)]

Using
sorted()
>>> d = {'a':10, 'b':1, 'c':22}
>>> d.items()
[('a', 10), ('c', 22), ('b', 1)]
>>> t = sorted(d.items())
>>> t
[('a', 10), ('b', 1), ('c', 22)]
>>> for k, v in sorted(d.items()):
... print k, v
...
a 10
b 1
c 22
We can do this even
more directly using the
built-in function sorted
that takes a sequence
as a parameter and
returns a sorted
sequence

Sort by values instead of key
• If we could
construct a list of
tuples of the form
(value, key) we
could sort by
value
• We do this with a
for loop that
creates a list of
tuples
>>> c = {'a':10, 'b':1, 'c':22}
>>> tmp = list()
>>> for k, v in c.items() :
... tmp.append( (v, k) )
...
>>> print tmp
[(10, 'a'), (22, 'c'), (1, 'b')]
>>> tmp.sort(reverse=True)
>>> print tmp
[(22, 'c'), (10, 'a'), (1, 'b')]

fhand = open('romeo.txt')
counts = dict()
for line in fhand:
words = line.split()
for word in words:
counts[word] = counts.get(word, 0 ) + 1
lst = list()
for key, val in counts.items():
lst.append( (val, key) )
lst.sort(reverse=True)
for val, key in lst[:10] :
print key, val
The top 10 most
common words.

Even Shorter Version (adv)
http://wiki.python.org/moin/HowTo/Sorti
ng
>>> c = {'a':10, 'b':1, 'c':22}
>>> print sorted( [ (v,k) for k,v in c.items() ] )
[(1, 'b'), (10, 'a'), (22, 'c')]
List comprehension creates a dynamic list. In this case, we
make a list of reversed tuples and then sort it.

Summary
• Tuple syntax
• Mutability (not)
• Comparability
• Sortable
• Tuples in assignment
statements
• Using sorted()
• Sorting dictionaries by either
key or value

Python programming Sequence Datatypes -Tuples

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