Tuples in Elixir

links: Elixir MOC

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Tuple is a data structure which organizes data, holding a fixed number of items of any type, but without explicit names for each element. Tuples are often used in Elixir for memory read-intensive operations since read-access of an element is a constant time operation. Tuples are created using curly braces.

empty_tuple = {}
one_element_tuple = {1}
multi_element_tuple = {1, :a, "hello"}

Tuples are stored contiguously in memory, that’s why accessing a tuple by index or getting the size of a tuple is a fast operation.

Elements in tuples can be accessed individually using elem/2 function using 0-based indexing

response = {:ok, "hello world"}
 
elem(response, 1)
# => hello world

Tuples are often used to represent grouped information

Float.ratio(0.25)
# => {1, 4} indicating the numerator and denominator of the fraction

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tags: elixir tuple

sources:

• Getting started with elixir: Tuples
• Lists vs Tuples
• Tuple hexdocs