Python Adventures

A namedtuple can be used as a simple class where you want to group together some attributes, you want to name them, and you don’t need any methods. As its name suggests, it’s a tuple, but you can assign names to the attribues.

Example

from collections import namedtuple

Point = namedtuple('Point', ['x', 'y'])    # name of the "struct" and its attributes
# Point = namedtuple('Point', 'x y')       # it would also work, and it means the same
                                           # the 2nd parameter can be a single space-delimited string

def main():
    p = Point(x=1, y=4)
    print(p)                # Point(x=1, y=4)
    p = Point(1, 4)
    print(p)                # Point(x=1, y=4)
    print(p.x)              # 1
    print(p[0])             # 1
    print(p == (1, 4))      # True

Class Syntax (Update: 20180814)
If you want to work with named tuples, there is an alternative syntax, which is available from Python 3.6. I find it more readable.

from typing import NamedTuple

class MyPoint(NamedTuple):
    x: int
    y: int

def main():
    p = MyPoint(x=1, y=4)
    print(p)                # MyPoint(x=1, y=4)
    p = MyPoint(1, 4)
    print(p)                # MyPoint(x=1, y=4)
    print(p.x)              # 1
    print(p[0])             # 1
    print(p == (1, 4))      # True

This is equivalent to the previous “namedtuple” version.