Swap Elements in a Python Tuple

In this tutorial, we will look at how to swap two elements in a tuple in Python with the help of some examples.

Can you swap tuple elements?

No. Tuples are an immutable data structure in Python and thus cannot be modified after they are created. You can, however, create a new tuple with the required elements swapped.

If you prefer a video tutorial over text, check out the following video detailing the steps in this tutorial –

How to create a new tuple with elements swapped?

If you want to swap elements in a tuple, use the following steps –

1. Create a list from the tuple elements.
2. Swap the relevant elements in the list using their index.
3. Create a new tuple from the list elements.

This will result in a new tuple with the required elements swapped from the original tuple.

Let’s now look at some examples of using this method.

Examples

Let’s create a tuple with three elements – 1, 2, and 3 and then use the above method to swap elements 2 and 3 and get a new tuple.

# create a tuple
t = (1, 2, 3)
# convert the tuple to list
ls = list(t)
# swap the elements in the list using their index
ls[1], ls[2] = ls[2], ls[1]
# create a new tuple from the list elements
new_t = tuple(ls)
# print the new tuple
print(new_t)

Output:

(1, 3, 2)

You can see that the required elements are swapped in the resulting tuple.

Let’s look at another example. This time we will swap the first two elements of a tuple with string values.

# create a tuple
t = ('Jim', 'Ben', 'Tom', 'Zack')
# convert the tuple to list
ls = list(t)
# swap the elements in the list using their index
ls[0], ls[1] = ls[1], ls[0]
# create a new tuple from the list elements
new_t = tuple(ls)
# print the new tuple
print(new_t)

Output:

('Ben', 'Jim', 'Tom', 'Zack')

The resulting tuple has the first two elements swapped from the original tuple.

FAQs

You might also be interested in –

• Swap Elements in a Python List with these Methods
• Swap Characters in a Python String with this Method
• Easily Swap Keys and Values in a Python Dictionary with this method