Tuple in C#

25 Aug 2013 · Comments

.NET Framework 4.0 has introduced some new types. Some of them are not popular like Tuple.

A tuple is a generic type that holds different elements, each of which can be of a different data type. A tuple can be useful when returning more than one value from a method. It is not meant to replace your domain model, but rather save you from creating a class for every set of data you use. The .NET Framework has a lot of methods that take advantage of Tuple.

public class Tuple <T1>
public class Tuple <T1, T2>
public class Tuple <T1, T2, T3>
public class Tuple <T1, T2, T3, T4>
public class Tuple <T1, T2, T3, T4, T5>
public class Tuple <T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6>
public class Tuple <T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7>
public class Tuple <T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, TRest>

A Tuple can be instantiated in two ways:

Constructor

var t = new Tuple<int, string>(30, "Adam");

Static Method
```
var t = Tuple.Create(30, "Adam");
```

The elements can be accessed using the read-only properties Item1, Item2, etc.

Console.WriteLine (t.Item1);   // 30
Console.WriteLine (t.Item2.ToUpper());   // ADAM

Although you can use an array of objects to accomplish the same task, object arrays are not safely typed. They also have a performance penalty because of boxing/unboxing of value types.

The == operator always returns false for two different tuples even if their elements have the same values. However, the Equals method is overridden to compare each individual element.

var t = Tuple.Create(30, "Adam");
var t2 = Tuple.Create(30, "Adam");
 
Console.WriteLine (t == t2);        // False
Console.WriteLine (t.Equals(t2));   // True

You can also implement IStructureEquatable for a custom comparison.

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