How To Read A List Of Tuples In Python

In this tutorial, we will learn how to read a list of tuples in Python. Tuples are similar to lists, but they are immutable, which means they cannot be changed after they are created.

Reading a list of tuples is useful while working with structured data, be it from a file or an API where the data is organized in tuples. Let’s dive into the steps for reading and processing a list of tuples in Python.

Step 1: Define the list of tuples

First, we need to have our data organized in a list of tuples. In this example, let’s create a list of tuples, where each tuple contains a country’s name and its corresponding capital.

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country_capital_list = [('USA', 'Washington, D.C.'),
                         ('France', 'Paris'),
                         ('Germany', 'Berlin'),
                         ('India', 'New Delhi')]

In this example, our data consists of 4 tuples, each with a country and its capital.

Step 2: Read the list of tuples

To read the list of tuples, you can use a simple for loop. The loop will iterate through the list of tuples, and you can extract individual elements of each tuple by using indexing.

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for country_capital in country_capital_list:
    print(country_capital)

This code will print each tuple in the list:

('USA', 'Washington, D.C.')
('France', 'Paris')
('Germany', 'Berlin')
('India', 'New Delhi')

Step 3: Access elements of the tuples

To access individual elements of each tuple (in this case, country and capital), you can use indexing inside the loop.

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for country_capital in country_capital_list:
    country = country_capital[0]
    capital = country_capital[1]
    print("Country:", country, ", Capital:", capital)

The output of this code will be:

Country: USA , Capital: Washington, D.C.
Country: France , Capital: Paris
Country: Germany , Capital: Berlin
Country: India , Capital: New Delhi

Another way to access elements of a tuple while iterating is using tuple unpacking. It allows you to assign variables directly to the individual tuple elements, thus making the code more readable.

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for country, capital in country_capital_list:
    print("Country:", country, ", Capital:", capital)

This code produces the same output as the previous code block.

Full code:

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country_capital_list = [('USA', 'Washington, D.C.'),
                         ('France', 'Paris'),
                         ('Germany', 'Berlin'),
                         ('India', 'New Delhi')]
 
for country_capital in country_capital_list:
    print(country_capital)
 
for country_capital in country_capital_list:
    country = country_capital[0]
    capital = country_capital[1]
    print("Country:", country, ", Capital:", capital)
 
for country, capital in country_capital_list:
    print("Country:", country, ", Capital:", capital)

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to read a list of tuples in Python using various methods. We first defined a list of tuples, iterated through the list, and accessed individual elements of the tuples using indexing and tuple unpacking.

Reading and processing lists of tuples is a common task in Python, especially when working with structured data. With this knowledge, you should now be better equipped to handle a list of tuples in your Python projects.