Differences and Applications of List, Tuple, Set and Dictionary in Python

Lists: are just like dynamic sized arrays, declared in other languages (vector in C++ and ArrayList in Java). Lists need not be homogeneous always which makes it the most powerful tool in Python.

Tuple: A Tuple is a collection of Python objects separated by commas. In some ways, a tuple is similar to a list in terms of indexing, nested objects, and repetition but a tuple is immutable, unlike lists that are mutable.

Set: A Set is an unordered collection data type that is iterable, mutable, and has no duplicate elements. Python’s set class represents the mathematical notion of a set.

Dictionary: in Python is an ordered (since Py 3.7) [unordered (Py 3.6 & prior)] collection of data values, used to store data values like a map, which, unlike other Data Types that hold only a single value as an element, Dictionary holds key:value pair. Key-value is provided in the dictionary to make it more optimized.

List, Tuple, Set, and Dictionary are the data structures in python that are used to store and organize the data in an efficient manner.

List	Tuple	Set	Dictionary
List is a non-homogeneous data structure that stores the elements in single row and multiple rows and columns	Tuple is also a non-homogeneous data structure that stores single row and multiple rows and columns	Set data structure is also non-homogeneous data structure but stores in single row	Dictionary is also a non-homogeneous data structure which stores key value pairs
List can be represented by [ ]	Tuple can be represented by   ( )	Set can be represented by { }	Dictionary  can be represented by { }
List allows duplicate elements	Tuple allows duplicate elements	Set will not allow duplicate elements	Set will not allow duplicate elements and dictionary doesn’t allow duplicate keys.
List can use nested among all	Tuple can use nested among all	Set can use nested among all	Dictionary can use nested among all
Example: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]	Example: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)	Example: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}	Example: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
List can be created using list() function	Tuple can be created using tuple() function.	Set can be created using set() function	Dictionary can be created using dict() function.
List is mutable i.e we can make any changes in list.	Tuple  is immutable i.e we can not make any changes in tuple	Set is mutable i.e we can make any changes in set. But elements are not duplicated.	Dictionary is mutable. But Keys are not duplicated.
List is ordered	Tuple is ordered	Set is unordered	Dictionary is ordered (Python 3.7 and above)
Creating an empty list l=[]	Creating an empty Tuple t=()	Creating a set a=set() b=set(a)	Creating an empty dictionary d={}

Below is the program for implementation of List, tuple, set, and dictionary:

Python3

# Python3 program for explaining
# use of list, tuple, set and
# dictionary

# Lists
l = []

# Adding Element into list
l.append(5)
l.append(10)
print("Adding 5 and 10 in list", l)

# Popping Elements from list
l.pop()
print("Popped one element from list", l)
print()

# Set
s = set()

# Adding element into set
s.add(5)
s.add(10)
print("Adding 5 and 10 in set", s)

# Removing element from set
s.remove(5)
print("Removing 5 from set", s)
print()

# Tuple
t = tuple(l)

# Tuples are immutable
print("Tuple", t)
print()

# Dictionary
d = {}

# Adding the key value pair
d[5] = "Five"
d[10] = "Ten"
print("Dictionary", d)

# Removing key-value pair
del d[10]
print("Dictionary", d)

Output

Adding 5 and 10 in list [5, 10]
Popped one element from list [5]

Adding 5 and 10 in set {10, 5}
Removing 5 from set {10}

Tuple (5,)

Dictionary {5: 'Five', 10: 'Ten'}
Dictionary {5: 'Five'}

Applications of List, Set, Tuple, and Dictionary

List:

• Used in JSON format
• Useful for Array operations
• Used in Databases

Tuple:

• Used to insert records in the database through SQL query at a time.Ex: (1.’sravan’, 34).(2.’geek’, 35)
• Used in parentheses checker

Set:

• Finding unique elements
• Join operations

Dictionary:

• Used to create a data frame with lists
• Used in JSON