Write a List of Tuples to a File in Python

# Table of Contents

1. Write a List of Tuples to a File in Python
2. Write a List of Tuples to a File using str.format()
3. Write a List of Tuples to a CSV file in Python

# Write a List of Tuples to a File in Python

To write a list of tuples to a file:

1. Use the with statement to open the file.
2. Use the write() method on the file object to write the list of tuples to the file.
3. The with statement takes care of automatically closing the file.

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list_of_tuples = [(1, 'bobby'), (2, 'hadz'), (3, 'com')]

with open('example.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write('\n'.join(f'{tup[0]} {tup[1]}' for tup in list_of_tuples))

The example uses a formatted string literal to format the tuple's contents.

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list_of_tuples = [(1, 'bobby'), (2, 'hadz'), (3, 'com')]

with open('example.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write('\n'.join(f'{tup[0]} {tup[1]}' for tup in list_of_tuples))

We opened a file called example.txt in write mode.

We used a formatted string literal to access the values in each tuple.

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my_str = 'is subscribed:'
my_bool = True

result = f'{my_str} {my_bool}'
print(result)  # 👉️ is subscribed: True

Make sure to wrap expressions in curly braces - {expression}.

We used the str.join() method to join the strings with a newline (\n) separator.

After running the script, the example.txt file contains the contents of each tuple on a separate line.

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1 bobby
2 hadz
3 com

# Write a List of Tuples to a File using str.format()

Alternatively, you can use the str.format() method.

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list_of_tuples = [(1, 'bobby'), (2, 'hadz'), (3, 'com')]

with open('example.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    f.write('\n'.join('{} {}'.format(*tup) for tup in list_of_tuples))

The code sample uses the str.format() method instead of a formatted string literal.

The str.format() method performs string formatting operations.

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result = '{} {}'.format('hello', 'world')

print(result)  # 👉️ 'hello world'

The string the method is called on can contain replacement fields specified using curly braces {}.

For example, if the tuples in your list contain 3 elements, make sure to specify 3 replacement fields.

# Write a list of tuples to a CSV file in Python

To write a list of tuples to a CSV file:

1. Use the with statement to open the CSV file.
2. Use the writerow() method on the writer object to write the list of tuples to the file.
3. The with statement takes care of automatically closing the file.

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import csv

list_of_tuples = [(1, 'bobby'), (2, 'hadz'), (3, 'com')]


with open('example.csv', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:

    writer = csv.writer(f, delimiter=" ", skipinitialspace=True)

    for tup in list_of_tuples:
        writer.writerow(tup)

We opened a file called example.csv in write mode.

The csv.writer() method returns a writer object that is used to convert data into delimited strings.

We used a space for the delimiter argument, so the elements of each tuple are separated by spaces.

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1 bobby
2 hadz
3 com

When the skipinitialspace argument is set to True, whitespace that immediately follows the delimiter is ignored.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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• How to open an HTML file in the Browser using Python
• Run multiple Python files concurrently / one after the other