Tuple vs Dictionary differences

Question

Can someone please explain what the major differences there are between Tuples and Dictionaries are and when to use which in Swift?

Answer 1

Major difference:

• If you need to return multiple values from a method you can use tuple.
• Tuple won't need any key value pairs like Dictionary.
• A tuple can contain only the predefined number of values, in dictionary there is no such limitation.
• A tuple can contain different values with different datatype while a dictionary can contain only one datatype value at a time
• Tuples are particularly useful for returning multiple values from a function. A dictionary can be used as a model object.

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There are two types of Tuple:

1 Named Tuple

In Named tuple we assign individual names to each elements.

Define it like:

let nameAndAge = (name:"Midhun", age:7)

Access the values like:

nameAndAge.name
nameAndAge.age

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2 Unnamed Tuple

In unnamed tuple we don't specify the name for it's elements.

Define it like:

let nameAndAge = ("Midhun", 7)

Access the values like:

nameAndAge.0
nameAndAge.1

or

let (theName, thAge) = nameAndAge
theName
thAge

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Reference:

Tuple

Tuples enable you to create and pass around groupings of values. You can use a tuple to return multiple values from a function as a single compound value.

You can check more about Tuple in Swift Programming Language

Dictionary

A dictionary is a container that stores multiple values of the same type. Each value is associated with a unique key, which acts as an identifier for that value within the dictionary

You can check more about Dictionary in Swift CollectionTypes