17. Tuples

17.1. Tuples

Tuples are similar to lists in that they are used to store an ordered sequence of items, usually of varying datatype.

high_scores_immutable = (25, 20, 10, 15, 30)

You can retrieve values in the same way as with lists, but the most important difference is that tuples are immutable. This means, that in the high_scores list above, you can change the value of individual elements:

high_scores[0] = 42

However, trying to change a value inside high_scores_immutable will return a TypeError: Object tuple does not support item assignment. Once you assign values inside a tuple, they cannot be changed.

Mutability is another difference between strings and lists - while lists are mutable, string are not.