What are "named tuples" in Python?

named tuples allow backward compatibility with code that checks for the version like this

>>> sys.version_info[0:2]
(3, 1)

while allowing future code to be more explicit by using this syntax

>>> sys.version_info.major
3
>>> sys.version_info.minor
1

namedtuples are a great feature, they are perfect container for data. When you have to “store” data you would use tuples or dictionaries, like:

user = dict(name="John", age=20)

or:

user = ("John", 20)

The dictionary approach is overwhelming, since dict are mutable and slower than tuples. On the other hand, the tuples are immutable and lightweight but lack readability for a great number of entries in the data fields.

namedtuples are the perfect compromise for the two approaches, the have great readability, lightweightness and immutability (plus they are polymorphic!).

namedtuple is a factory function for making a tuple class. With that class we can create tuples that are callable by name also.

import collections

#Create a namedtuple class with names "a" "b" "c"
Row = collections.namedtuple("Row", ["a", "b", "c"])   

row = Row(a=1,b=2,c=3) #Make a namedtuple from the Row class we created

print row    #Prints: Row(a=1, b=2, c=3)
print row.a  #Prints: 1
print row[0] #Prints: 1

row = Row._make([2, 3, 4]) #Make a namedtuple from a list of values

print row   #Prints: Row(a=2, b=3, c=4)

In Python inside there is a good use of container called a named tuple, it can be used to create a definition of class and has all the features of the original tuple.

Using named tuple will be directly applied to the default class template to generate a simple class, this method allows a lot of code to improve readability and it is also very convenient when defining a class.

What is namedtuple ?

As the name suggests, namedtuple is a tuple with name. In standard tuple, we access the elements using the index, whereas namedtuple allows user to define name for elements. This is very handy especially processing csv (comma separated value) files and working with complex and large dataset, where the code becomes messy with the use of indices (not so pythonic).

How to use them ?

>>>from collections import namedtuple
>>>saleRecord = namedtuple('saleRecord','shopId saleDate salesAmout totalCustomers')
>>>
>>>
>>>#Assign values to a named tuple 
>>>shop11=saleRecord(11,'2015-01-01',2300,150) 
>>>shop12=saleRecord(shopId=22,saleDate="2015-01-01",saleAmout=1512,totalCustomers=125)

Reading

>>>#Reading as a namedtuple
>>>print("Shop Id =",shop12.shopId)
12
>>>print("Sale Date=",shop12.saleDate)
2015-01-01
>>>print("Sales Amount =",shop12.salesAmount)
1512
>>>print("Total Customers =",shop12.totalCustomers)
125

Interesting Scenario in CSV Processing :

from csv import reader
from collections import namedtuple

saleRecord = namedtuple('saleRecord','shopId saleDate totalSales totalCustomers')
fileHandle = open("salesRecord.csv","r")
csvFieldsList=csv.reader(fileHandle)
for fieldsList in csvFieldsList:
    shopRec = saleRecord._make(fieldsList)
    overAllSales += shopRec.totalSales;

print("Total Sales of The Retail Chain =",overAllSales)

What are named tuples?

A named tuple is a tuple.

It does everything a tuple can.

But it’s more than just a tuple.

It’s a specific subclass of a tuple that is programmatically created to your specification, with named fields and a fixed length.

This, for example, creates a subclass of tuple, and aside from being of fixed length (in this case, three), it can be used everywhere a tuple is used without breaking. This is known as Liskov substitutability.

New in Python 3.6, we can use a class definition with typing.NamedTuple to create a namedtuple:

from typing import NamedTuple

class ANamedTuple(NamedTuple):
    """a docstring"""
    foo: int
    bar: str
    baz: list

The above is the same as collections.namedtuple, except the above additionally has type annotations and a docstring. The below is available in Python 2+:

>>> from collections import namedtuple
>>> class_name = 'ANamedTuple'
>>> fields = 'foo bar baz'
>>> ANamedTuple = namedtuple(class_name, fields)

This instantiates it:

>>> ant = ANamedTuple(1, 'bar', [])

We can inspect it and use its attributes:

>>> ant
ANamedTuple(foo=1, bar='bar', baz=[])
>>> ant.foo
1
>>> ant.bar
'bar'
>>> ant.baz.append('anything')
>>> ant.baz
['anything']

Deeper explanation

To understand named tuples, you first need to know what a tuple is. A tuple is essentially an immutable (can’t be changed in-place in memory) list.

Here’s how you might use a regular tuple:

>>> student_tuple = 'Lisa', 'Simpson', 'A'
>>> student_tuple
('Lisa', 'Simpson', 'A')
>>> student_tuple[0]
'Lisa'
>>> student_tuple[1]
'Simpson'
>>> student_tuple[2]
'A'

You can expand a tuple with iterable unpacking:

>>> first, last, grade = student_tuple
>>> first
'Lisa'
>>> last
'Simpson'
>>> grade
'A'

Named tuples are tuples that allow their elements to be accessed by name instead of just index!

You make a namedtuple like this:

>>> from collections import namedtuple
>>> Student = namedtuple('Student', ['first', 'last', 'grade'])

You can also use a single string with the names separated by spaces, a slightly more readable use of the API:

>>> Student = namedtuple('Student', 'first last grade')

How to use them?

You can do everything tuples can do (see above) as well as do the following:

>>> named_student_tuple = Student('Lisa', 'Simpson', 'A')
>>> named_student_tuple.first
'Lisa'
>>> named_student_tuple.last
'Simpson'
>>> named_student_tuple.grade
'A'
>>> named_student_tuple._asdict()
OrderedDict([('first', 'Lisa'), ('last', 'Simpson'), ('grade', 'A')])
>>> vars(named_student_tuple)
OrderedDict([('first', 'Lisa'), ('last', 'Simpson'), ('grade', 'A')])
>>> new_named_student_tuple = named_student_tuple._replace(first='Bart', grade='C')
>>> new_named_student_tuple
Student(first='Bart', last='Simpson', grade='C')

A commenter asked:

In a large script or programme, where does one usually define a named tuple?

The types you create with namedtuple are basically classes you can create with easy shorthand. Treat them like classes. Define them on the module level, so that pickle and other users can find them.

The working example, on the global module level:

>>> from collections import namedtuple
>>> NT = namedtuple('NT', 'foo bar')
>>> nt = NT('foo', 'bar')
>>> import pickle
>>> pickle.loads(pickle.dumps(nt))
NT(foo='foo', bar='bar')

And this demonstrates the failure to lookup the definition:

>>> def foo():
...     LocalNT = namedtuple('LocalNT', 'foo bar')
...     return LocalNT('foo', 'bar')
... 
>>> pickle.loads(pickle.dumps(foo()))
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
_pickle.PicklingError: Can't pickle <class '__main__.LocalNT'>: attribute lookup LocalNT on __main__ failed

Why/when should I use named tuples instead of normal tuples?

Use them when it improves your code to have the semantics of tuple elements expressed in your code.

You can use them instead of an object if you would otherwise use an object with unchanging data attributes and no functionality.

You can also subclass them to add functionality, for example:

class Point(namedtuple('Point', 'x y')):
    """adding functionality to a named tuple"""
        __slots__ = ()
        @property
        def hypot(self):
            return (self.x ** 2 + self.y ** 2) ** 0.5
        def __str__(self):
            return 'Point: x=%6.3f  y=%6.3f  hypot=%6.3f' % (self.x, self.y, self.hypot)

Why/when should I use normal tuples instead of named tuples?

It would probably be a regression to switch from using named tuples to tuples. The upfront design decision centers around whether the cost from the extra code involved is worth the improved readability when the tuple is used.

There is no extra memory used by named tuples versus tuples.

Is there any kind of "named list" (a mutable version of the named tuple)?

You’re looking for either a slotted object that implements all of the functionality of a statically sized list or a subclassed list that works like a named tuple (and that somehow blocks the list from changing in size.)

A now expanded, and perhaps even Liskov substitutable, example of the first:

from collections import Sequence

class MutableTuple(Sequence): 
    """Abstract Base Class for objects that work like mutable
    namedtuples. Subclass and define your named fields with 
    __slots__ and away you go.
    """
    __slots__ = ()
    def __init__(self, *args):
        for slot, arg in zip(self.__slots__, args):
            setattr(self, slot, arg)
    def __repr__(self):
        return type(self).__name__ + repr(tuple(self))
    # more direct __iter__ than Sequence's
    def __iter__(self): 
        for name in self.__slots__:
            yield getattr(self, name)
    # Sequence requires __getitem__ & __len__:
    def __getitem__(self, index):
        return getattr(self, self.__slots__[index])
    def __len__(self):
        return len(self.__slots__)

And to use, just subclass and define __slots__:

class Student(MutableTuple):
    __slots__ = 'first', 'last', 'grade' # customize 


>>> student = Student('Lisa', 'Simpson', 'A')
>>> student
Student('Lisa', 'Simpson', 'A')
>>> first, last, grade = student
>>> first
'Lisa'
>>> last
'Simpson'
>>> grade
'A'
>>> student[0]
'Lisa'
>>> student[2]
'A'
>>> len(student)
3
>>> 'Lisa' in student
True
>>> 'Bart' in student
False
>>> student.first = 'Bart'
>>> for i in student: print(i)
... 
Bart
Simpson
A

namedtuple

is one of the easiest ways to clean up your code and make it more readable. It self-documents what is happening in the tuple. Namedtuples instances are just as memory efficient as regular tuples as they do not have per-instance dictionaries, making them faster than dictionaries.

from collections import namedtuple

Color = namedtuple('Color', ['hue', 'saturation', 'luminosity'])

 p = Color(170, 0.1, 0.6)
 if p.saturation >= 0.5:
     print "Whew, that is bright!"
 if p.luminosity >= 0.5:
     print "Wow, that is light"

Without naming each element in the tuple, it would read like this:

p = (170, 0.1, 0.6)
if p[1] >= 0.5:
    print "Whew, that is bright!"
if p[2]>= 0.5:
   print "Wow, that is light"

It is so much harder to understand what is going on in the first example. With a namedtuple, each field has a name. And you access it by name rather than position or index. Instead of p[1], we can call it p.saturation. It’s easier to understand. And it looks cleaner.

Creating an instance of the namedtuple is easier than creating a dictionary.

# dictionary
>>>p = dict(hue = 170, saturation = 0.1, luminosity = 0.6)
>>>p['hue']
170

#nametuple
>>>from collections import namedtuple
>>>Color = namedtuple('Color', ['hue', 'saturation', 'luminosity'])
>>>p = Color(170, 0.1, 0.6)
>>>p.hue
170

When might you use namedtuple

1. As just stated, the namedtuple makes understanding tuples much
   easier. So if you need to reference the items in the tuple, then
   creating them as namedtuples just makes sense.
2. Besides being more lightweight than a dictionary, namedtuple also
   keeps the order unlike the dictionary.
3. As in the example above, it is simpler to create an instance of
   namedtuple than dictionary. And referencing the item in the named
   tuple looks cleaner than a dictionary. p.hue rather than
   p['hue'].

The syntax

collections.namedtuple(typename, field_names[, verbose=False][, rename=False])

• namedtuple is in the collections library.
• typename: This is the name of the new tuple subclass.
• field_names: A sequence of names for each field. It can be a sequence
  as in a list ['x', 'y', 'z'] or string x y z (without commas, just
  whitespace) or x, y, z.
• rename: If rename is True, invalid fieldnames are automatically
  replaced with positional names. For example, ['abc', 'def', 'ghi','abc'] is converted to ['abc', '_1', 'ghi', '_3'], eliminating the
  keyword 'def' (since that is a reserved word for defining functions)
  and the duplicate fieldname 'abc'.
• verbose: If verbose is True, the class definition is printed just
  before being built.

You can still access namedtuples by their position, if you so choose. p[1] == p.saturation. It still unpacks like a regular tuple.

Methods

All the regular tuple methods are supported. Ex: min(), max(), len(), in, not in, concatenation (+), index, slice, etc. And there are a few additional ones for namedtuple. Note: these all start with an underscore. _replace, _make, _asdict.

_replace
Returns a new instance of the named tuple replacing specified fields with new values.

The syntax

somenamedtuple._replace(kwargs)

Example

>>>from collections import namedtuple

>>>Color = namedtuple('Color', ['hue', 'saturation', 'luminosity'])
>>>p = Color(170, 0.1, 0.6)

>>>p._replace(hue=87)
Color(87, 0.1, 0.6)

>>>p._replace(hue=87, saturation=0.2)
Color(87, 0.2, 0.6)

Notice: The field names are not in quotes; they are keywords here.
Remember: Tuples are immutable – even if they are namedtuples and have the _replace method. The _replace produces a new instance; it does not modify the original or replace the old value. You can of course save the new result to the variable. p = p._replace(hue=169)

_make

Makes a new instance from an existing sequence or iterable.

The syntax

somenamedtuple._make(iterable)

Example

 >>>data = (170, 0.1, 0.6)
 >>>Color._make(data)
Color(hue=170, saturation=0.1, luminosity=0.6)

>>>Color._make([170, 0.1, 0.6])  #the list is an iterable
Color(hue=170, saturation=0.1, luminosity=0.6)

>>>Color._make((170, 0.1, 0.6))  #the tuple is an iterable
Color(hue=170, saturation=0.1, luminosity=0.6)

>>>Color._make(170, 0.1, 0.6) 
Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    File "<string>", line 15, in _make
TypeError: 'float' object is not callable

What happened with the last one? The item inside the parenthesis should be the iterable. So a list or tuple inside the parenthesis works, but the sequence of values without enclosing as an iterable returns an error.

_asdict

Returns a new OrderedDict which maps field names to their corresponding values.

The syntax

somenamedtuple._asdict()

Example

 >>>p._asdict()
OrderedDict([('hue', 169), ('saturation', 0.1), ('luminosity', 0.6)])

Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/38ee9d/intro_to_namedtuple/

There is also named list which is similar to named tuple but mutable
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/namedlist

Everyone else has already answered it, but I think I still have something else to add.

Namedtuple could be intuitively deemed as a shortcut to define a class.

See a cumbersome and conventional way to define a class .

class Duck:
    def __init__(self, color, weight):
        self.color = color
        self.weight = weight
red_duck = Duck('red', '10')

    In [50]: red_duck
    Out[50]: <__main__.Duck at 0x1068e4e10>
    In [51]: red_duck.color
    Out[51]: 'red'

As for namedtuple

from collections import namedtuple
Duck = namedtuple('Duck', ['color', 'weight'])
red_duck = Duck('red', '10')

In [54]: red_duck
Out[54]: Duck(color='red', weight='10')
In [55]: red_duck.color
Out[55]: 'red'

Try this:

collections.namedtuple()

Basically, namedtuples are easy to create, lightweight object types.
They turn tuples into convenient containers for simple tasks.
With namedtuples, you don’t have to use integer indices for accessing members of a tuple.

Examples:

Code 1:

>>> from collections import namedtuple

>>> Point = namedtuple('Point','x,y')

>>> pt1 = Point(1,2)

>>> pt2 = Point(3,4)

>>> dot_product = ( pt1.x * pt2.x ) +( pt1.y * pt2.y )

>>> print dot_product
11

Code 2:

>>> from collections import namedtuple

>>> Car = namedtuple('Car','Price Mileage Colour Class')

>>> xyz = Car(Price = 100000, Mileage = 30, Colour = 'Cyan', Class = 'Y')

>>> print xyz

Car(Price=100000, Mileage=30, Colour='Cyan', Class='Y')
>>> print xyz.Class
Y

Another way (a new way) to use named tuple is using NamedTuple from typing package: Type hints in namedtuple

Let’s use the example of the top answer in this post to see how to use it.

(1) Before using the named tuple, the code is like this:

pt1 = (1.0, 5.0)
pt2 = (2.5, 1.5)

from math import sqrt

line_length = sqrt((pt1[0] - pt2[0])**2 + (pt1[1] - pt2[1])**2)
print(line_length)

(2) Now we use the named tuple

from typing import NamedTuple

inherit the NamedTuple class and define the variable name in the new class. test is the name of the class.

class test(NamedTuple):
    x: float
    y: float

create instances from the class and assign values to them

pt1 = test(1.0, 5.0)   # x is 1.0, and y is 5.0. The order matters
pt2 = test(2.5, 1.5)

use the variables from the instances to calculate

line_length = sqrt((pt1.x - pt2.x)**2 + (pt1.y - pt2.y)**2)
print(line_length)

I think it’s worth adding information about NamedTuples using type hinting:

# dependencies
from typing import NamedTuple, Optional

# definition
class MyNamedTuple(NamedTuple):
    an_attribute: str
    my_attribute: Optional[str] = None
    next_attribute: int = 1

# instantiation
my_named_tuple = MyNamedTuple("abc", "def")
# or more explicitly:
other_tuple = MyNamedTuple(an_attribute="abc", my_attribute="def")

# access
assert "abc" == my_named_tuple.an_attribute
assert 1 == other_tuple.next_attribute

  from collections import namedtuple 

• They subclass tuple, and add a layer to assign property names to the positional elements

‘namedtuple’ is a function that generates a new class that inherits from "tuple" but also provides "named properties" to access elements of the tuple.

Generating Named Tuple Classes

"namedtuple" is a class factory. It needs a few things to generate the class

• the class name

• A sequence of field names we want to assign, in the order of elements in the tuple. Field names can be any valid variable names except that they cannot start with an "underscore".

• The return value of the call to "namedtuple" will be a class. We need to assign that class to a variable name in our code so we can use it to construct instances. In general, we use the same name as the name of the class that was generated.

  # Coords is a class
  Coords = namedtuple('Coords', ['x', 'y'])
  

• Now we can create instances of Coords class:

  pt=Coords(10,20)
  

• There are many ways we can provide the list of field names to the namedtuple function.

  • a list of strings

       namedtuple('Coords',['x','y'])
    

  • a tuple of strings

       namedtuple('Coords',('x','y'))
    

  • a single string with the field names separated by whitespace or commas

       namedtuple('Coords','x, y'])
    

Instantiating Named Tuples

After we have created a named tuple class, we can instantiate them just like an ordinary class. In fact, the __new__ method of the generated class uses the field names we provided as param names.

Coords = namedtuple('Coords', ['x', 'y'])
coord=Coords(10,20) 

Accessing Data in named tuple:

Since named tuples inherit from tuples, we can still handle them just like any other tuple: by index, slicing, iterating

Coords = namedtuple('Coords', ['x', 'y'])
coord=Coords(10,20)       isinstance(coord,tuple) --> True # namedtuple is subclass of tuple

x,y=coord  # Unpacking
x=coord[0] # by index
for e in coord:
    print(e)

• Now we can also access the data using the field names just as we do with the classes.

     coord.x --> 10
     coord.y --> 20
  

• Since namedtuple is generated classes inherit from tuple, we can write like this:

   class Coord(tuple):
        ....
  

• "coord" is a tuple, therefore immutable

"rename" keyword arg for namedtuple

Field names cannot start with an underscore

  Coords = namedtuple('Coords', ['x', '_y']) # does not work

namedtuple has a keyword-only argument, rename (defaults to False) that will automatically rename any invalid field name.

Coords = namedtuple('Coords', ['x', '_y'], rename=True)

field name "x" wont change, but "_y" will change to _1. 1 is the index of the field name.

Imagine the scenario where you need to update your application so you want to use namedTuple to store the users of your application. You need to extract the column names but they are invalid for named tuples and it will throw an exception. In this case, you use rename=True.

Extracting Named Tuple values into a dictionary

Coords = namedtuple('Coords', ['x', 'y'])
coord=Coords(10,20)
coord._asdict()
   {'x': 10, 'y': 20}

Why do we use namedtuple

If you have this class:

class Stock:
    def __init__(self, symbol, year, month, day, open, high, low, close):
        self.symbol = symbol
        self.year = year
        self.month = month
        self.day = day
        self.open = open 
        self.high = high
        self.low = low
        self.close = close

Class Approach – vs – Tuple Approach

stock.symbol              stock[0]     
stock.open                stock[4]
stock.close               stock[7]
stock.high – stock.low     stock[5] – stock[6]

As you see, the tuple approach is not readable. The namedtuple function in collections allows us to create a tuple that also has names attached to each field or property. This can be handy to reference data in the tuple structure by "name" instead of just relying on position. But keep in mind, tuples are immutable so if you want mutability, stick to class

• Since namedtuple is iterable you can use the iterable methods. For example, if you have "coords" as a class instance, you cannot look for what is the max coord. But with named-tuple, you can.