Related
What's the difference between tuples/lists and what are their advantages/disadvantages?
Apart from tuples being immutable there is also a semantic distinction that should guide their usage. Tuples are heterogeneous data structures (i.e., their entries have different meanings), while lists are homogeneous sequences. Tuples have structure, lists have order.
Using this distinction makes code more explicit and understandable.
One example would be pairs of page and line number to reference locations in a book, e.g.:
my_location = (42, 11) # page number, line number
You can then use this as a key in a dictionary to store notes on locations. A list on the other hand could be used to store multiple locations. Naturally one might want to add or remove locations from the list, so it makes sense that lists are mutable. On the other hand it doesn't make sense to add or remove items from an existing location - hence tuples are immutable.
There might be situations where you want to change items within an existing location tuple, for example when iterating through the lines of a page. But tuple immutability forces you to create a new location tuple for each new value. This seems inconvenient on the face of it, but using immutable data like this is a cornerstone of value types and functional programming techniques, which can have substantial advantages.
There are some interesting articles on this issue, e.g. "Python Tuples are Not Just Constant Lists" or "Understanding tuples vs. lists in Python". The official Python documentation also mentions this
"Tuples are immutable, and usually contain an heterogeneous sequence ...".
In a statically typed language like Haskell the values in a tuple generally have different types and the length of the tuple must be fixed. In a list the values all have the same type and the length is not fixed. So the difference is very obvious.
Finally there is the namedtuple in Python, which makes sense because a tuple is already supposed to have structure. This underlines the idea that tuples are a light-weight alternative to classes and instances.
Difference between list and tuple
Literal
someTuple = (1,2)
someList = [1,2]
Size
a = tuple(range(1000))
b = list(range(1000))
a.__sizeof__() # 8024
b.__sizeof__() # 9088
Due to the smaller size of a tuple operation, it becomes a bit faster, but not that much to mention about until you have a huge number of elements.
Permitted operations
b = [1,2]
b[0] = 3 # [3, 2]
a = (1,2)
a[0] = 3 # Error
That also means that you can't delete an element or sort a tuple.
However, you could add a new element to both list and tuple with the only difference that since the tuple is immutable, you are not really adding an element but you are creating a new tuple, so the id of will change
a = (1,2)
b = [1,2]
id(a) # 140230916716520
id(b) # 748527696
a += (3,) # (1, 2, 3)
b += [3] # [1, 2, 3]
id(a) # 140230916878160
id(b) # 748527696
Usage
As a list is mutable, it can't be used as a key in a dictionary, whereas a tuple can be used.
a = (1,2)
b = [1,2]
c = {a: 1} # OK
c = {b: 1} # Error
If you went for a walk, you could note your coordinates at any instant in an (x,y) tuple.
If you wanted to record your journey, you could append your location every few seconds to a list.
But you couldn't do it the other way around.
The key difference is that tuples are immutable. This means that you cannot change the values in a tuple once you have created it.
So if you're going to need to change the values use a List.
Benefits to tuples:
Slight performance improvement.
As a tuple is immutable it can be used as a key in a dictionary.
If you can't change it neither can anyone else, which is to say you don't need to worry about any API functions etc. changing your tuple without being asked.
Lists are mutable; tuples are not.
From docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html
Tuples are immutable, and usually contain an heterogeneous sequence of
elements that are accessed via unpacking (see later in this section)
or indexing (or even by attribute in the case of namedtuples). Lists
are mutable, and their elements are usually homogeneous and are
accessed by iterating over the list.
This is an example of Python lists:
my_list = [0,1,2,3,4]
top_rock_list = ["Bohemian Rhapsody","Kashmir","Sweet Emotion", "Fortunate Son"]
This is an example of Python tuple:
my_tuple = (a,b,c,d,e)
celebrity_tuple = ("John", "Wayne", 90210, "Actor", "Male", "Dead")
Python lists and tuples are similar in that they both are ordered collections of values. Besides the shallow difference that lists are created using brackets "[ ... , ... ]" and tuples using parentheses "( ... , ... )", the core technical "hard coded in Python syntax" difference between them is that the elements of a particular tuple are immutable whereas lists are mutable (...so only tuples are hashable and can be used as dictionary/hash keys!). This gives rise to differences in how they can or can't be used (enforced a priori by syntax) and differences in how people choose to use them (encouraged as 'best practices,' a posteriori, this is what smart programers do). The main difference a posteriori in differentiating when tuples are used versus when lists are used lies in what meaning people give to the order of elements.
For tuples, 'order' signifies nothing more than just a specific 'structure' for holding information. What values are found in the first field can easily be switched into the second field as each provides values across two different dimensions or scales. They provide answers to different types of questions and are typically of the form: for a given object/subject, what are its attributes? The object/subject stays constant, the attributes differ.
For lists, 'order' signifies a sequence or a directionality. The second element MUST come after the first element because it's positioned in the 2nd place based on a particular and common scale or dimension. The elements are taken as a whole and mostly provide answers to a single question typically of the form, for a given attribute, how do these objects/subjects compare? The attribute stays constant, the object/subject differs.
There are countless examples of people in popular culture and programmers who don't conform to these differences and there are countless people who might use a salad fork for their main course. At the end of the day, it's fine and both can usually get the job done.
To summarize some of the finer details
Similarities:
Duplicates - Both tuples and lists allow for duplicates
Indexing, Selecting, & Slicing - Both tuples and lists index using integer values found within brackets. So, if you want the first 3 values of a given list or tuple, the syntax would be the same:
>>> my_list[0:3]
[0,1,2]
>>> my_tuple[0:3]
[a,b,c]
Comparing & Sorting - Two tuples or two lists are both compared by their first element, and if there is a tie, then by the second element, and so on. No further attention is paid to subsequent elements after earlier elements show a difference.
>>> [0,2,0,0,0,0]>[0,0,0,0,0,500]
True
>>> (0,2,0,0,0,0)>(0,0,0,0,0,500)
True
Differences: - A priori, by definition
Syntax - Lists use [], tuples use ()
Mutability - Elements in a given list are mutable, elements in a given tuple are NOT mutable.
# Lists are mutable:
>>> top_rock_list
['Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Kashmir', 'Sweet Emotion', 'Fortunate Son']
>>> top_rock_list[1]
'Kashmir'
>>> top_rock_list[1] = "Stairway to Heaven"
>>> top_rock_list
['Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Sweet Emotion', 'Fortunate Son']
# Tuples are NOT mutable:
>>> celebrity_tuple
('John', 'Wayne', 90210, 'Actor', 'Male', 'Dead')
>>> celebrity_tuple[5]
'Dead'
>>> celebrity_tuple[5]="Alive"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
Hashtables (Dictionaries) - As hashtables (dictionaries) require that its keys are hashable and therefore immutable, only tuples can act as dictionary keys, not lists.
#Lists CAN'T act as keys for hashtables(dictionaries)
>>> my_dict = {[a,b,c]:"some value"}
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'
#Tuples CAN act as keys for hashtables(dictionaries)
>>> my_dict = {("John","Wayne"): 90210}
>>> my_dict
{('John', 'Wayne'): 90210}
Differences - A posteriori, in usage
Homo vs. Heterogeneity of Elements - Generally list objects are homogenous and tuple objects are heterogeneous. That is, lists are used for objects/subjects of the same type (like all presidential candidates, or all songs, or all runners) whereas although it's not forced by), whereas tuples are more for heterogenous objects.
Looping vs. Structures - Although both allow for looping (for x in my_list...), it only really makes sense to do it for a list. Tuples are more appropriate for structuring and presenting information (%s %s residing in %s is an %s and presently %s % ("John","Wayne",90210, "Actor","Dead"))
It's been mentioned that the difference is largely semantic: people expect a tuple and list to represent different information. But this goes further than a guideline; some libraries actually behave differently based on what they are passed. Take NumPy for example (copied from another post where I ask for more examples):
>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = np.arange(9).reshape(3,3)
>>> a
array([[0, 1, 2],
[3, 4, 5],
[6, 7, 8]])
>>> idx = (1,1)
>>> a[idx]
4
>>> idx = [1,1]
>>> a[idx]
array([[3, 4, 5],
[3, 4, 5]])
The point is, while NumPy may not be part of the standard library, it's a major Python library, and within NumPy lists and tuples are completely different things.
Lists are for looping, tuples are for structures i.e. "%s %s" %tuple.
Lists are usually homogeneous, tuples are usually heterogeneous.
Lists are for variable length, tuples are for fixed length.
The values of list can be changed any time but the values of tuples can't be change.
The advantages and disadvantages depends upon the use. If you have such a data which you never want to change then you should have to use tuple, otherwise list is the best option.
Difference between list and tuple
Tuples and lists are both seemingly similar sequence types in Python.
Literal syntax
We use parenthesis () to construct tuples and square brackets [ ] to get a new list. Also, we can use call of the appropriate type to get required structure — tuple or list.
someTuple = (4,6)
someList = [2,6]
Mutability
Tuples are immutable, while lists are mutable. This point is the base the for the following ones.
Memory usage
Due to mutability, you need more memory for lists and less memory for tuples.
Extending
You can add a new element to both tuples and lists with the only difference that the id of the tuple will be changed (i.e., we’ll have a new object).
Hashing
Tuples are hashable and lists are not. It means that you can use a tuple as a key in a dictionary. The list can't be used as a key in a dictionary, whereas a tuple can be used
tup = (1,2)
list_ = [1,2]
c = {tup : 1} # ok
c = {list_ : 1} # error
Semantics
This point is more about best practice. You should use tuples as heterogeneous data structures, while lists are homogenous sequences.
Lists are intended to be homogeneous sequences, while tuples are heterogeneous data structures.
As people have already answered here that tuples are immutable while lists are mutable, but there is one important aspect of using tuples which we must remember
If the tuple contains a list or a dictionary inside it, those can be changed even if the tuple itself is immutable.
For example, let's assume we have a tuple which contains a list and a dictionary as
my_tuple = (10,20,30,[40,50],{ 'a' : 10})
we can change the contents of the list as
my_tuple[3][0] = 400
my_tuple[3][1] = 500
which makes new tuple looks like
(10, 20, 30, [400, 500], {'a': 10})
we can also change the dictionary inside tuple as
my_tuple[4]['a'] = 500
which will make the overall tuple looks like
(10, 20, 30, [400, 500], {'a': 500})
This happens because list and dictionary are the objects and these objects are not changing, but the contents its pointing to.
So the tuple remains immutable without any exception
The PEP 484 -- Type Hints says that the types of elements of a tuple can be individually typed; so that you can say Tuple[str, int, float]; but a list, with List typing class can take only one type parameter: List[str], which hints that the difference of the 2 really is that the former is heterogeneous, whereas the latter intrinsically homogeneous.
Also, the standard library mostly uses the tuple as a return value from such standard functions where the C would return a struct.
As people have already mentioned the differences I will write about why tuples.
Why tuples are preferred?
Allocation optimization for small tuples
To reduce memory fragmentation and speed up allocations, Python reuses old tuples. If a
tuple no longer needed and has less than 20 items instead of deleting
it permanently Python moves it to a free list.
A free list is divided into 20 groups, where each group represents a
list of tuples of length n between 0 and 20. Each group can store up
to 2 000 tuples. The first (zero) group contains only 1 element and
represents an empty tuple.
>>> a = (1,2,3)
>>> id(a)
4427578104
>>> del a
>>> b = (1,2,4)
>>> id(b)
4427578104
In the example above we can see that a and b have the same id. That is
because we immediately occupied a destroyed tuple which was on the
free list.
Allocation optimization for lists
Since lists can be modified, Python does not use the same optimization as in tuples. However,
Python lists also have a free list, but it is used only for empty
objects. If an empty list is deleted or collected by GC, it can be
reused later.
>>> a = []
>>> id(a)
4465566792
>>> del a
>>> b = []
>>> id(b)
4465566792
Source: https://rushter.com/blog/python-lists-and-tuples/
Why tuples are efficient than lists? -> https://stackoverflow.com/a/22140115
The most important difference is time ! When you do not want to change the data inside the list better to use tuple ! Here is the example why use tuple !
import timeit
print(timeit.timeit(stmt='[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]', number=1000000)) #created list
print(timeit.timeit(stmt='(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10)', number=1000000)) # created tuple
In this example we executed both statements 1 million times
Output :
0.136621
0.013722200000000018
Any one can clearly notice the time difference.
A direction quotation from the documentation on 5.3. Tuples and Sequences:
Though tuples may seem similar to lists, they are often used in different situations and for different purposes. Tuples are immutable, and usually contain a heterogeneous sequence of elements that are accessed via unpacking (see later in this section) or indexing (or even by attribute in the case of namedtuples). Lists are mutable, and their elements are usually homogeneous and are accessed by iterating over the list.
In other words, TUPLES are used to store group of elements where the contents/members of the group would not change while LISTS are used to store group of elements where the members of the group can change.
For instance, if i want to store IP of my network in a variable, it's best i used a tuple since the the IP is fixed. Like this my_ip = ('192.168.0.15', 33, 60). However, if I want to store group of IPs of places I would visit in the next 6 month, then I should use a LIST, since I will keep updating and adding new IP to the group. Like this
places_to_visit = [
('192.168.0.15', 33, 60),
('192.168.0.22', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.1', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.2', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.8', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.11', 34, 60)
]
First of all, they both are the non-scalar objects (also known as a compound objects) in Python.
Tuples, ordered sequence of elements (which can contain any object with no aliasing issue)
Immutable (tuple, int, float, str)
Concatenation using + (brand new tuple will be created of course)
Indexing
Slicing
Singleton (3,) # -> (3) instead of (3) # -> 3
List (Array in other languages), ordered sequence of values
Mutable
Singleton [3]
Cloning new_array = origin_array[:]
List comprehension [x**2 for x in range(1,7)] gives you
[1,4,9,16,25,36] (Not readable)
Using list may also cause an aliasing bug (two distinct paths
pointing to the same object).
Just a quick extension to list vs tuple responses:
Due to dynamic nature, list allocates more bit buckets than the actual memory required. This is done to prevent costly reallocation operation in case extra items are appended in the future.
On the other hand, being static, lightweight tuple object does not reserve extra memory required to store them.
Lists are mutable and tuples are immutable.
Just consider this example.
a = ["1", "2", "ra", "sa"] #list
b = ("1", "2", "ra", "sa") #tuple
Now change index values of list and tuple.
a[2] = 1000
print a #output : ['1', '2', 1000, 'sa']
b[2] = 1000
print b #output : TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment.
Hence proved the following code is invalid with tuple, because we attempted to update a tuple, which is not allowed.
Lists are mutable. whereas tuples are immutable. Accessing an offset element with index makes more sense in tuples than lists, Because the elements and their index cannot be changed.
List is mutable and tuples is immutable. The main difference between mutable and immutable is memory usage when you are trying to append an item.
When you create a variable, some fixed memory is assigned to the variable. If it is a list, more memory is assigned than actually used. E.g. if current memory assignment is 100 bytes, when you want to append the 101th byte, maybe another 100 bytes will be assigned (in total 200 bytes in this case).
However, if you know that you are not frequently add new elements, then you should use tuples. Tuples assigns exactly size of the memory needed, and hence saves memory, especially when you use large blocks of memory.
I have a rectangular matrix with digits only, i want calculate the number of different unique 2 × 2 square matrices in it.
I stored all possible 2x2 matrices in a new list. Now I want to re move all duplicate matrices from this new list. I don't know how to do it. If I use 'set()' function it gives me the error "unhashable type: 'list' ".
def differentSquares(matrix):
squares_list = []
for i in range (len(matrix)-1):
for j in range (len(matrix[i])-1):
temp=[[matrix[i][j],matrix[i][j+1]],
[matrix[i+1][j],matrix[i+1][j+1]]]
squares_list.append(temp)
return len(squares_list)
I know this problem can be solved by a different logic but I still want to know how can someone remove a duplicate matrix from a list of matrices.
If I enter the following input
Matrix=[[1,2,1],
[2,2,2],
[2,2,2],
[1,2,3],
[2,2,1]]
The value returned is 8 as I returned the length of the list without removing the duplicates.
If I remove the duplicates the answer will become 6(correct answer)
As mentioned by Alex, you can hash only immutable type objects in a set. list is mutable whereas tuple is immutable.
For more info - Hashable, immutable
Also, you can directly add your immutable objects to a set. Since a set will always contain unique elements, the add operation will not add any duplicates.
def differentSquares(matrix):
unique_squares = set() # Create a set for adding unique 2x2 matrices
for i in range (len(matrix)-1):
for j in range (len(matrix[i])-1):
temp=((matrix[i][j],matrix[i][j+1]),
(matrix[i+1][j],matrix[i+1][j+1]))
unique_squares.add(temp) # Add the matrix. It will not add any duplicates
return len(unique_squares) # Returns 6 for the given example
Lists are mutable(can be changed) and therefore cannot be hashed. Instead try to use tuples which are immutable and therefore can be hashed.
def differentSquares(matrix):
squares_list = []
for i in range(len(matrix) - 1):
for j in range(len(matrix[i]) - 1):
temp=((matrix[i][j], matrix[i][j+1]),
(matrix[i+1][j], matrix[i+1][j+1]))
squares_list.append(temp)
return len(set(squares_list))
I know that this is a commonly asked question and there are numerous posts discussing the topic surrounding hash-able property of set elements, but I am trying to understand why set can accept 1D list but not multi-dimensional list to initialize it.
Look at the below code: Case1, Case2 works (they accept 1D list) while Case3 does not (it accepts 2D list). How and what is the role of dimension in set initialization.
#Case1:
cities = set(["Frankfurt", "Basel","Freiburg"])
print(cities)
#Case2:
citylist = list(["Frankfurt", "Basel","Freiburg"])
setofcitites = set(citylist)
print(setofcitites)
#Case3:
more_cities = set([["Frankfurt", "Basel","Freiburg"], ["Dubai", "Toronto","Sydney"]])
print(more_cities)
Short answer
Strings are hashable, but lists are not.
Longer answer
Understand precisely what is being hashed when you use the set function.
In Case 1 and Case 2, you are hashing the elements of the list, which are actually strings.
In Case 3, you are hashing the elements of the list, which are lists themselves.
Since lists are mutable objects, they are not hashable.
In case 1 and 2, no lists are being hashed. The list is iterated, and it's elements are hashed. The hashed elements aren't lists, and are otherwise hashable, so it's fine.
In case 3 though, the outer list is iterated like before, but each element of the list is another list, which are attempted to be hashed. As you know, that won't end well.
That's because in the first two cases you're essentially converting a list into a set i.e. individual elements of the list become elements of the set. Since those are strings, and strings are hashable, they are allowed in the set.
In the third case the elements of the list you're trying to convert into a set are lists themselves and a list is not hashable, hence the error. It's equivalent as if you've tried to do:
your_set = set()
your_set.add("Frankfurt") # OK
your_set.add(["Frankfurt", "Basel"]) # Err
list is mutable object, thus can't be hashed
this will work
more_cities = set([("Frankfurt", "Basel","Freiburg"), ("Dubai", "Toronto","Sydney")])
What's the difference between tuples/lists and what are their advantages/disadvantages?
Apart from tuples being immutable there is also a semantic distinction that should guide their usage. Tuples are heterogeneous data structures (i.e., their entries have different meanings), while lists are homogeneous sequences. Tuples have structure, lists have order.
Using this distinction makes code more explicit and understandable.
One example would be pairs of page and line number to reference locations in a book, e.g.:
my_location = (42, 11) # page number, line number
You can then use this as a key in a dictionary to store notes on locations. A list on the other hand could be used to store multiple locations. Naturally one might want to add or remove locations from the list, so it makes sense that lists are mutable. On the other hand it doesn't make sense to add or remove items from an existing location - hence tuples are immutable.
There might be situations where you want to change items within an existing location tuple, for example when iterating through the lines of a page. But tuple immutability forces you to create a new location tuple for each new value. This seems inconvenient on the face of it, but using immutable data like this is a cornerstone of value types and functional programming techniques, which can have substantial advantages.
There are some interesting articles on this issue, e.g. "Python Tuples are Not Just Constant Lists" or "Understanding tuples vs. lists in Python". The official Python documentation also mentions this
"Tuples are immutable, and usually contain an heterogeneous sequence ...".
In a statically typed language like Haskell the values in a tuple generally have different types and the length of the tuple must be fixed. In a list the values all have the same type and the length is not fixed. So the difference is very obvious.
Finally there is the namedtuple in Python, which makes sense because a tuple is already supposed to have structure. This underlines the idea that tuples are a light-weight alternative to classes and instances.
Difference between list and tuple
Literal
someTuple = (1,2)
someList = [1,2]
Size
a = tuple(range(1000))
b = list(range(1000))
a.__sizeof__() # 8024
b.__sizeof__() # 9088
Due to the smaller size of a tuple operation, it becomes a bit faster, but not that much to mention about until you have a huge number of elements.
Permitted operations
b = [1,2]
b[0] = 3 # [3, 2]
a = (1,2)
a[0] = 3 # Error
That also means that you can't delete an element or sort a tuple.
However, you could add a new element to both list and tuple with the only difference that since the tuple is immutable, you are not really adding an element but you are creating a new tuple, so the id of will change
a = (1,2)
b = [1,2]
id(a) # 140230916716520
id(b) # 748527696
a += (3,) # (1, 2, 3)
b += [3] # [1, 2, 3]
id(a) # 140230916878160
id(b) # 748527696
Usage
As a list is mutable, it can't be used as a key in a dictionary, whereas a tuple can be used.
a = (1,2)
b = [1,2]
c = {a: 1} # OK
c = {b: 1} # Error
If you went for a walk, you could note your coordinates at any instant in an (x,y) tuple.
If you wanted to record your journey, you could append your location every few seconds to a list.
But you couldn't do it the other way around.
The key difference is that tuples are immutable. This means that you cannot change the values in a tuple once you have created it.
So if you're going to need to change the values use a List.
Benefits to tuples:
Slight performance improvement.
As a tuple is immutable it can be used as a key in a dictionary.
If you can't change it neither can anyone else, which is to say you don't need to worry about any API functions etc. changing your tuple without being asked.
Lists are mutable; tuples are not.
From docs.python.org/2/tutorial/datastructures.html
Tuples are immutable, and usually contain an heterogeneous sequence of
elements that are accessed via unpacking (see later in this section)
or indexing (or even by attribute in the case of namedtuples). Lists
are mutable, and their elements are usually homogeneous and are
accessed by iterating over the list.
This is an example of Python lists:
my_list = [0,1,2,3,4]
top_rock_list = ["Bohemian Rhapsody","Kashmir","Sweet Emotion", "Fortunate Son"]
This is an example of Python tuple:
my_tuple = (a,b,c,d,e)
celebrity_tuple = ("John", "Wayne", 90210, "Actor", "Male", "Dead")
Python lists and tuples are similar in that they both are ordered collections of values. Besides the shallow difference that lists are created using brackets "[ ... , ... ]" and tuples using parentheses "( ... , ... )", the core technical "hard coded in Python syntax" difference between them is that the elements of a particular tuple are immutable whereas lists are mutable (...so only tuples are hashable and can be used as dictionary/hash keys!). This gives rise to differences in how they can or can't be used (enforced a priori by syntax) and differences in how people choose to use them (encouraged as 'best practices,' a posteriori, this is what smart programers do). The main difference a posteriori in differentiating when tuples are used versus when lists are used lies in what meaning people give to the order of elements.
For tuples, 'order' signifies nothing more than just a specific 'structure' for holding information. What values are found in the first field can easily be switched into the second field as each provides values across two different dimensions or scales. They provide answers to different types of questions and are typically of the form: for a given object/subject, what are its attributes? The object/subject stays constant, the attributes differ.
For lists, 'order' signifies a sequence or a directionality. The second element MUST come after the first element because it's positioned in the 2nd place based on a particular and common scale or dimension. The elements are taken as a whole and mostly provide answers to a single question typically of the form, for a given attribute, how do these objects/subjects compare? The attribute stays constant, the object/subject differs.
There are countless examples of people in popular culture and programmers who don't conform to these differences and there are countless people who might use a salad fork for their main course. At the end of the day, it's fine and both can usually get the job done.
To summarize some of the finer details
Similarities:
Duplicates - Both tuples and lists allow for duplicates
Indexing, Selecting, & Slicing - Both tuples and lists index using integer values found within brackets. So, if you want the first 3 values of a given list or tuple, the syntax would be the same:
>>> my_list[0:3]
[0,1,2]
>>> my_tuple[0:3]
[a,b,c]
Comparing & Sorting - Two tuples or two lists are both compared by their first element, and if there is a tie, then by the second element, and so on. No further attention is paid to subsequent elements after earlier elements show a difference.
>>> [0,2,0,0,0,0]>[0,0,0,0,0,500]
True
>>> (0,2,0,0,0,0)>(0,0,0,0,0,500)
True
Differences: - A priori, by definition
Syntax - Lists use [], tuples use ()
Mutability - Elements in a given list are mutable, elements in a given tuple are NOT mutable.
# Lists are mutable:
>>> top_rock_list
['Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Kashmir', 'Sweet Emotion', 'Fortunate Son']
>>> top_rock_list[1]
'Kashmir'
>>> top_rock_list[1] = "Stairway to Heaven"
>>> top_rock_list
['Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Sweet Emotion', 'Fortunate Son']
# Tuples are NOT mutable:
>>> celebrity_tuple
('John', 'Wayne', 90210, 'Actor', 'Male', 'Dead')
>>> celebrity_tuple[5]
'Dead'
>>> celebrity_tuple[5]="Alive"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment
Hashtables (Dictionaries) - As hashtables (dictionaries) require that its keys are hashable and therefore immutable, only tuples can act as dictionary keys, not lists.
#Lists CAN'T act as keys for hashtables(dictionaries)
>>> my_dict = {[a,b,c]:"some value"}
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unhashable type: 'list'
#Tuples CAN act as keys for hashtables(dictionaries)
>>> my_dict = {("John","Wayne"): 90210}
>>> my_dict
{('John', 'Wayne'): 90210}
Differences - A posteriori, in usage
Homo vs. Heterogeneity of Elements - Generally list objects are homogenous and tuple objects are heterogeneous. That is, lists are used for objects/subjects of the same type (like all presidential candidates, or all songs, or all runners) whereas although it's not forced by), whereas tuples are more for heterogenous objects.
Looping vs. Structures - Although both allow for looping (for x in my_list...), it only really makes sense to do it for a list. Tuples are more appropriate for structuring and presenting information (%s %s residing in %s is an %s and presently %s % ("John","Wayne",90210, "Actor","Dead"))
It's been mentioned that the difference is largely semantic: people expect a tuple and list to represent different information. But this goes further than a guideline; some libraries actually behave differently based on what they are passed. Take NumPy for example (copied from another post where I ask for more examples):
>>> import numpy as np
>>> a = np.arange(9).reshape(3,3)
>>> a
array([[0, 1, 2],
[3, 4, 5],
[6, 7, 8]])
>>> idx = (1,1)
>>> a[idx]
4
>>> idx = [1,1]
>>> a[idx]
array([[3, 4, 5],
[3, 4, 5]])
The point is, while NumPy may not be part of the standard library, it's a major Python library, and within NumPy lists and tuples are completely different things.
Lists are for looping, tuples are for structures i.e. "%s %s" %tuple.
Lists are usually homogeneous, tuples are usually heterogeneous.
Lists are for variable length, tuples are for fixed length.
The values of list can be changed any time but the values of tuples can't be change.
The advantages and disadvantages depends upon the use. If you have such a data which you never want to change then you should have to use tuple, otherwise list is the best option.
Difference between list and tuple
Tuples and lists are both seemingly similar sequence types in Python.
Literal syntax
We use parenthesis () to construct tuples and square brackets [ ] to get a new list. Also, we can use call of the appropriate type to get required structure — tuple or list.
someTuple = (4,6)
someList = [2,6]
Mutability
Tuples are immutable, while lists are mutable. This point is the base the for the following ones.
Memory usage
Due to mutability, you need more memory for lists and less memory for tuples.
Extending
You can add a new element to both tuples and lists with the only difference that the id of the tuple will be changed (i.e., we’ll have a new object).
Hashing
Tuples are hashable and lists are not. It means that you can use a tuple as a key in a dictionary. The list can't be used as a key in a dictionary, whereas a tuple can be used
tup = (1,2)
list_ = [1,2]
c = {tup : 1} # ok
c = {list_ : 1} # error
Semantics
This point is more about best practice. You should use tuples as heterogeneous data structures, while lists are homogenous sequences.
Lists are intended to be homogeneous sequences, while tuples are heterogeneous data structures.
As people have already answered here that tuples are immutable while lists are mutable, but there is one important aspect of using tuples which we must remember
If the tuple contains a list or a dictionary inside it, those can be changed even if the tuple itself is immutable.
For example, let's assume we have a tuple which contains a list and a dictionary as
my_tuple = (10,20,30,[40,50],{ 'a' : 10})
we can change the contents of the list as
my_tuple[3][0] = 400
my_tuple[3][1] = 500
which makes new tuple looks like
(10, 20, 30, [400, 500], {'a': 10})
we can also change the dictionary inside tuple as
my_tuple[4]['a'] = 500
which will make the overall tuple looks like
(10, 20, 30, [400, 500], {'a': 500})
This happens because list and dictionary are the objects and these objects are not changing, but the contents its pointing to.
So the tuple remains immutable without any exception
The PEP 484 -- Type Hints says that the types of elements of a tuple can be individually typed; so that you can say Tuple[str, int, float]; but a list, with List typing class can take only one type parameter: List[str], which hints that the difference of the 2 really is that the former is heterogeneous, whereas the latter intrinsically homogeneous.
Also, the standard library mostly uses the tuple as a return value from such standard functions where the C would return a struct.
As people have already mentioned the differences I will write about why tuples.
Why tuples are preferred?
Allocation optimization for small tuples
To reduce memory fragmentation and speed up allocations, Python reuses old tuples. If a
tuple no longer needed and has less than 20 items instead of deleting
it permanently Python moves it to a free list.
A free list is divided into 20 groups, where each group represents a
list of tuples of length n between 0 and 20. Each group can store up
to 2 000 tuples. The first (zero) group contains only 1 element and
represents an empty tuple.
>>> a = (1,2,3)
>>> id(a)
4427578104
>>> del a
>>> b = (1,2,4)
>>> id(b)
4427578104
In the example above we can see that a and b have the same id. That is
because we immediately occupied a destroyed tuple which was on the
free list.
Allocation optimization for lists
Since lists can be modified, Python does not use the same optimization as in tuples. However,
Python lists also have a free list, but it is used only for empty
objects. If an empty list is deleted or collected by GC, it can be
reused later.
>>> a = []
>>> id(a)
4465566792
>>> del a
>>> b = []
>>> id(b)
4465566792
Source: https://rushter.com/blog/python-lists-and-tuples/
Why tuples are efficient than lists? -> https://stackoverflow.com/a/22140115
The most important difference is time ! When you do not want to change the data inside the list better to use tuple ! Here is the example why use tuple !
import timeit
print(timeit.timeit(stmt='[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]', number=1000000)) #created list
print(timeit.timeit(stmt='(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10)', number=1000000)) # created tuple
In this example we executed both statements 1 million times
Output :
0.136621
0.013722200000000018
Any one can clearly notice the time difference.
A direction quotation from the documentation on 5.3. Tuples and Sequences:
Though tuples may seem similar to lists, they are often used in different situations and for different purposes. Tuples are immutable, and usually contain a heterogeneous sequence of elements that are accessed via unpacking (see later in this section) or indexing (or even by attribute in the case of namedtuples). Lists are mutable, and their elements are usually homogeneous and are accessed by iterating over the list.
In other words, TUPLES are used to store group of elements where the contents/members of the group would not change while LISTS are used to store group of elements where the members of the group can change.
For instance, if i want to store IP of my network in a variable, it's best i used a tuple since the the IP is fixed. Like this my_ip = ('192.168.0.15', 33, 60). However, if I want to store group of IPs of places I would visit in the next 6 month, then I should use a LIST, since I will keep updating and adding new IP to the group. Like this
places_to_visit = [
('192.168.0.15', 33, 60),
('192.168.0.22', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.1', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.2', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.8', 34, 60),
('192.168.0.11', 34, 60)
]
First of all, they both are the non-scalar objects (also known as a compound objects) in Python.
Tuples, ordered sequence of elements (which can contain any object with no aliasing issue)
Immutable (tuple, int, float, str)
Concatenation using + (brand new tuple will be created of course)
Indexing
Slicing
Singleton (3,) # -> (3) instead of (3) # -> 3
List (Array in other languages), ordered sequence of values
Mutable
Singleton [3]
Cloning new_array = origin_array[:]
List comprehension [x**2 for x in range(1,7)] gives you
[1,4,9,16,25,36] (Not readable)
Using list may also cause an aliasing bug (two distinct paths
pointing to the same object).
Just a quick extension to list vs tuple responses:
Due to dynamic nature, list allocates more bit buckets than the actual memory required. This is done to prevent costly reallocation operation in case extra items are appended in the future.
On the other hand, being static, lightweight tuple object does not reserve extra memory required to store them.
Lists are mutable and tuples are immutable.
Just consider this example.
a = ["1", "2", "ra", "sa"] #list
b = ("1", "2", "ra", "sa") #tuple
Now change index values of list and tuple.
a[2] = 1000
print a #output : ['1', '2', 1000, 'sa']
b[2] = 1000
print b #output : TypeError: 'tuple' object does not support item assignment.
Hence proved the following code is invalid with tuple, because we attempted to update a tuple, which is not allowed.
Lists are mutable. whereas tuples are immutable. Accessing an offset element with index makes more sense in tuples than lists, Because the elements and their index cannot be changed.
List is mutable and tuples is immutable. The main difference between mutable and immutable is memory usage when you are trying to append an item.
When you create a variable, some fixed memory is assigned to the variable. If it is a list, more memory is assigned than actually used. E.g. if current memory assignment is 100 bytes, when you want to append the 101th byte, maybe another 100 bytes will be assigned (in total 200 bytes in this case).
However, if you know that you are not frequently add new elements, then you should use tuples. Tuples assigns exactly size of the memory needed, and hence saves memory, especially when you use large blocks of memory.
I have an ordered dictionary like following:
source =([('a',[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,11,13,17]),('b',[1,2,3,12])])
I want to calculate the length of each key's value first, then calculate the sqrt of it, say it is L.
Insert L to the positions which can be divided without remainder and insert "1" after other number.
For example, source['a'] = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,11,13,17] the length of it is 9.
Thus sqrt of len(source['a']) is 3.
Insert number 3 at the position which can be divided exactly by 3 (eg. position 3, position 6, position 9) if the position of the number can not be divided exactly by 3 then insert 1 after it.
To get a result like folloing:
result=([('a',["1,1","2,1","3,3","4,1","5,1","6,3","7,1","11,1","13,3","10,1"]),('b',["1,1","2,2","3,1","12,2"])]
I dont know how to change the item in the list to a string pair. BTW, this is not my homework assignment, I was trying to build a boolean retrival engine, the source data is too big, so I just created a simple sample here to explain what I want to achive :)
As this seems to be a homework, I will try to help you with the part you are facing problem with
I dont know how to change the item in the list to a string pair.
As the entire list needs to be updated, its better to recreate it rather than update it in place, though its possible as lists are mutable
Consider a list
lst = [1,2,3,4,5]
to convert it to a list of strings, you can use list comprehension
lst = [str(e) for e in lst]
You may also use built-in map as map(str,lst), but you need to remember than in Py3.X, map returns a map object, so it needs to be handled accordingly
Condition in a comprehension is best expressed as a conditional statement
<TRUE-STATEMENT> if <condition> else <FALSE-STATEMENT>
To get the index of any item in a list, your best bet is to use the built-in enumerate
If you need to create a formatted string expression from a sequence of items, its suggested to use the format string specifier
"{},{}".format(a,b)
The length of any sequence including a list can be calculated through the built-in len
You can use the operator ** with fractional power or use the math module and invoke the sqrt function to calculate the square-root
Now you just have to combine each of the above suggestion to solve your problem.