Python List to Tuple

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Problem: Given a Python list with n elements. How to convert it into a tuple with the same n elements?

Examples:

  • Convert list [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] into tuple (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
  • Convert list ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann'] into tuple ('Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann').
  • Convert list [1] into tuple (1,).

Note Tuple: Tuples are similar to lists—with the difference that you cannot change the tuple values (tuples are immutable) and you use parentheses rather than square brackets.

Solution: Use the built-in Python tuple() function to convert a list into a tuple. You don’t need to import any external library.

Code: The following code converts the three given lists into tuples.

list_1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
print(tuple(list_1))
# (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

list_2 = ['Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann']
print(tuple(list_2))
# ('Alice', 'Bob', 'Ann')

list_3 = [1]
print(tuple(list_3))
# (1,)

Try It Yourself: With our interactive code shell, you can try it yourself. As a small exercise, try to convert the empty list [] into a tuple and look what happens.

Explanation: You can see that converting a list with one element leads to a tuple with one element. The tuple() function is the easiest way to convert a list into a tuple value. Note that the values in the tuple are not copied—only a new reference to the same element is created:

The graphic also shows how to convert a tuple back to a list by using the list() function (that’s also a Python built-in function). Thus, calling list(tuple(lst)) on a list lst will result in a new list with the same elements.

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Try to execute this code with the interactive Python tutor: