Tuples as Dictionary Keys

Tuples are immutable and hashable, enabling their use as dictionary keys. This can be especially beneficial when working with composite keys. For instance:

employee_salaries = {("Alice", "Smith"): 70000, ("Bob", "Johnson"): 80000}

salary = employee_salaries[("Alice", "Smith")]

print(f"Alice's salary: {salary}")

Tuple Packing and Unpacking

In Python, you can pack several values into a tuple and unpack them when needed. This is particularly handy for returning multiple values from a function:

def get_name_and_age():

return ("Alice", 30)

name, age = get_name_and_age()

print(f"Name: {name}, Age: {age}")

Named Tuples for Better Clarity

The namedtuple feature from the collections module allows you to create tuples with named attributes, improving code clarity and self-documentation:

from collections import namedtuple

Person = namedtuple("Person", ["name", "age", "city"])

person1 = Person("Alice", 30, "New York")

print(f"Name: {person1.name}, Age: {person1.age}, City: {person1.city}")

Tuple Concatenation and Repetition

You can easily concatenate two tuples using the + operator or repeat a tuple with the * operator. This is a useful but often overlooked trick:

tuple1 = (1, 2, 3)

tuple2 = (4, 5, 6)

concatenated_tuple = tuple1 + tuple2

print(f"Concatenated tuple: {concatenated_tuple}")

Enumerating with Tuples

The enumerate() function provides an iterator yielding tuples that include an index and the respective element from the iterable:

fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry"]

for index, fruit in enumerate(fruits, start=1):

print(f"{index}. {fruit}")

Explore More Python Techniques

If you're looking for a deeper dive into Python tuples—including their properties, practical uses, and advanced methods—be sure to check out this thorough article.