How to Append an Element to Tuple in Python

Appending a tuple in Python is impossible because it is an immutable object. But If you want to add an element to a tuple in Python, there’s no straightforward way.

Python tuple is an unordered, immutable data type used to store collections. Tuple data types are initialized by encapsulating values using parentheses ().

What does immutable mean in Python?

An immutable means having a fixed value and being unable to change. Therefore, we are violating a principle of immutability by appending or removing an element from a tuple.

Appending to a tuple means creating a new object that adds value to an existing tuple.

After creating a tuple, you can’t add or remove any element. This is because tuples have no append() or extend() methods, but you can create a new tuple from an existing one.

How to append to a tuple?

To append to a tuple in Python, follow the below steps.

1. Convert the tuple to a list using the list() method.
2. Append an element to the list.
3. Convert the list to a tuple.

Step 1: Convert the tuple to a list

To convert a tuple to a list in Python, use the list() method.

tup = (11, 21, 19, 18, 29)

lst = list(tup)

print(lst)
print(type(lst))

Output

[11, 21, 19, 18, 29]
<class 'list'>

You can see that list() method converted a tuple to a list. The type() is a built-in function that allows you to check the data type of the parameter passed to it.

Step 2: Append an element to the list

To append an element to a list in Python, use the append() method.

tup = (11, 21, 19, 18, 29)

lst = list(tup)

lst.append(46)

print(lst)

Output

[11, 21, 19, 18, 29, 46]

And we appended the “46” element to the list.

Step 3: Convert a list to a tuple.

To convert a list to a tuple, use the tuple() function.

tup = (11, 21, 19, 18, 29)

lst = list(tup)

lst.append(46)

tup = tuple(lst)

print(tup)

Output

(11, 21, 19, 18, 29, 46)

And we successfully append an element to a tuple using the conversions and append() method.

Using tuple concatenation

Tuple concatenation can be done using the + operator, which allows us to combine two tuples.

Let’s create a tuple (11, 21, 10), and we want to append the value 46 to it. Use the + operator to concatenate the value onto our tuple.

tuple_one = (11, 21, 19)
tuple_concat = tuple_one + (46, )
print(tuple_concat)

Output

(11, 21, 19, 46)

You can see that we appended a tuple to a tuple using the + operator. This is because we are appending a tuple to a tuple, not an element. If you are appending an element to a tuple, it will throw a TypeError.

Appending to a Tuple with Unpacking

To unpack a tuple in Python, use the asterisk(*). The unpacking operator, *, is used to access all the elements in a container object, such as a tuple.

To append to a tuple using unpacking, unpack all the values of the first tuple and then add the new value or values.

tuple_one = (11, 21, 19)
tuple_one = (*tuple_one, 46)
print(tuple_one)

Output

(11, 21, 19, 46)

We are unpacking a tuple and adding a 46 element to that tuple, and we get the appended value tuple in the result.

That’s it.