What is the difference between a python tuple and a dictionary?

Python offers many built-in data structures like lists, tuples, sets, and dictionaries, which are used to store and manage data easily. In this article, we will discuss the difference between a Python tuple and a dictionary.

Tuple

Tuples are a data type that belongs to the sequence data type category. They are similar to lists in Python, but they are immutable. We can't change the elements of a tuple, but we can execute a variety of actions on them, such as count, index, type, etc.

Tuples are created in Python by placing a sequence of values separated by a 'comma', with or without the use of parentheses for data grouping. Tuples can have any number of elements and any type of data (like strings, integers, lists, etc.).

Example

In the below example, we will look at how to create a tuple -

tuple = ('Tutorialspoint', 'is', 'the', 'best', 'platform', 'to', 'learn', 'new', 'skills')
print(tuple)

Output

When you run the program, it will show this output -

('Tutorialspoint', 'is', 'the', 'best', 'platform', 'to', 'learn', 'new', 'skills')

Dictionary

A dictionary is a Python container that maintains mappings of unique keys to values in an unordered and mutable manner. Data values are stored in key-value pairs using dictionaries. Dictionaries are defined using curly brackets and have keys and values. 

Example

Following is an example to create a dictionary -

thisdict = {
   "companyname": "Tutorialspoint",
   "tagline" : "simplyeasylearning",
}
print(thisdict)

Output

After running the program, you will get this result -

{'companyname': 'Tutorialspoint', 'tagline': 'simplyeasylearning'}

Comparing Tuple and Dictionary

The difference between a tuple and a dictionary in Python lies in how they store and retrieve data. We can access the elements of a tuple using an index, while we can access the elements of a dictionary using keys.

Example 

In the following example, we have declared a tuple called 'names' and a dictionary called 'designation'. We will access the first name from the tuple using the index value and the designation of that employee using a key.

# Tuple example
names = ("Amit", "Ankit", "Aakriti")
# Access by index
print("First name in tuple:", names[0])


# Dictionary example
designation = {
   "Amit": "Trainee Engineer", 
   "Ankit": "Project Manager", 
   "Aakriti": "Technical Lead"
   }

# Access by key
print("Employee Designation:", designation[names[0]])  

Output

This output will be displayed when the program runs -

First name in tuple: Amit
Employee Designation: Trainee Engineer

Differences between a tuple and a dictionary

The following are the main differences between a tuple and a dictionary in Python.