# tuple

## English

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### Etymology

From the ending of the words quintuple, sextuple; from Latin -plus.

### Noun

tuple (plural tuples)

1. (set theory) A finite sequence of terms.
A tuple is not merely a totally-ordered set because the same element can appear more than once in a tuple: for example, ${\displaystyle (a,b,a)}$ qualifies as a 3-tuple whereas it would not qualify as a totally-ordered set (of cardinality 3), because the set would be ${\displaystyle \{a,b\}}$ where ${\displaystyle a\leq b}$ and ${\displaystyle b\leq a}$ so that ${\displaystyle a=b}$; i.e., it would actually be a one-element set, ${\displaystyle \{a\}}$, not even just two-element.
If commutativity were added to a tuple, it would turn into a multiset or "bag". For example, words (of some alphabetic language) can be considered to be tuples of letters. If the ordering requirement on those letters were lifted, then the word would become a multiset of letters equivalent to those of its anagrams.
2. (computing) A single row in a relational database.
3. (computing) A set of comma-separated values passed to a program or operating system as a parameter to a function call.
4. (computing) In some programming languages, a data type that is similar but distinct from the list data type, whose instances are characterized by having a rather fixed arity, and the elements of which instances can differ from each other by data type. (Note: this definition may overlap with the previous one.)
Both Python and Haskell have a tuple data type as well as a list data type.
Unlike lists, tuples are not formed by consing.

#### Synonyms

• (finite sequence of terms): n-tuple (when the sequence contains n terms), ordered pair (when the sequence contains exactly two terms), triple or triplet (when the sequence contains exactly three terms)

## Lojban

### Etymology

In Lojbanized spelling.

### Gismu

tuple (rafsi tup or tu'e)

1. leg; x1 is a/the leg (body-part) of x2; (metaphor: supporting branch).