Learning Python, 6th Edition

Chapter 9. Tuples, Files, and Everything Else

This chapter rounds out our in-depth tour of the core object types in Python by exploring the tuple, a collection of other objects that cannot be changed, and the file, an interface to external files on your computer. As you’ll see, the tuple is a relatively simple object that largely performs operations you’ve already learned about for strings and lists. The file object is a commonly used and full-featured tool for processing files on a host of devices. Because files are so pervasive in programming, the basic overview of files here is supplemented by larger examples in later chapters.

This chapter also concludes this part of the book by summarizing properties common to all the core object types we’ve met—the notions of equality, comparisons, object copies, and so on. We’ll also briefly explore other object types in Python’s toolbox, including the None placeholder and the namedtuple hybrid; as you’ll see, although we’ve covered all the primary built-in types, the object story in Python is broader than implied thus far. Finally, we’ll close this part of the book by taking a look at a set of common object type pitfalls and exploring some exercises that will allow you to experiment with and cement the ideas you’ve learned.

One logistics note up front: as for strings in Chapter 7, our exploration of files here will be limited to fundamentals that most Python programmers—and especially Python newcomers—need to know. In particular, Unicode ...