What are duplicates in programming and how are they used?
Duples, known in English as tuples, are a structured data type that is defined by being immutable sequences of objects. In other words, it is an ordered set of values, like a list, but cannot be modified once it has been created. This means that, although you can reassign the variable pointing to one duplicate to reference another, you cannot alter the individual elements of the duplicate.
Unlike strings, which are also immutable but can only contain characters, duplicates can store any type of data: integers, strings, Booleans, etc. In some programming languages, this flexibility is not allowed, but in Python it is, which facilitates the manipulation of data with a variety of types.
How to define duplicates in Python?
Defining a dupla in Python is a simple process that is done with parentheses:
my_tuple = (1, "Hello", True).
Here, my_tuple
is a dupla containing an integer, a string, and a boolean. You can check its type using the type()
function:
type(my_tuple)
How to access elements of a tuple?
In Python, you can access elements of a tuple using indexes, starting the numbering from zero. For example:
print(my_tuple[0]) print(my_tuple[1])
Trying to modify a dupla element directly will cause an error, since they are immutable.
How to create a single element dupla?
When creating a single-element dupla, it is important to include a comma after the element so that Python interprets it correctly as a dupla:
tupla_unica = (5,)print(type(tupla_unica))
Is it possible to combine and reassign duplicates?
Being immutable, the duplicates cannot be modified, but they can be combined to create a new duplicate, and then reassign this combination to a variable:
tupla1 = (1, 2, 3)tupla2 = (4, 5)
#tupla1 = tupla1 + tupla2print(tupla1)
How to unpack duples?
To unpack is to assign the values of a dupla to different variables, which is extremely useful:
tuple = (10, 20, 30)x, y, z = tuple
print(x) print(y) print(z)
How are duplicates used to return multiple values from a function?
Python allows functions to return multiple values by using duplicates. This is particularly useful for directly mapping the returned elements to specific variables:
def coordinates(): return (5, 4)
x, y = coordinates()print(x, y)
This allows to simplify the code and make it more readable, optimizing the way to handle multiple values returned by functions.
Duples are powerful tools in Python because of their immutability and the ease with which they allow you to handle different types of data. By using them effectively, you can optimize the handling of complex data and improve the efficiency of the development process.
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