We summarize in the following Table 3.3 the most important properties of the container types presented so far. (Arrays will be treated separately in Chapter 4: Linear Algebra – Arrays):
|
Type |
Access |
Order |
Duplicate Values |
Mutability |
|
List |
By index |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Tuple |
By index |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
|
Dictionary |
By key |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Set |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Table 3.3: Container types
As you can see in the previous table, there is a difference in accessing container elements, and sets and dictionaries are not ordered.
Due to the different properties of the various container types, we frequently convert one type to another (see Table 3.4):
|
Container Types |
Syntax |
|
List → Tuple |
tuple([1, 2, 3]) |
|
Tuple → List |
list((1, 2, 3)) |
|
List, Tuple → Set |
set([1, 2]), set((1, )) |
|
Set → List |
list({1, 2 ,3}) |
|
Dictionary →... |