C# | Tuples

Accessing tuple elements

To access tuple elements use Item1-Item8 properties. Only the properties with index number less or equal to tuple size are going to be available (i.e. one cannot access Item3 property in Tuple<T1,T2>).

var tuple = new Tuple<string, int, bool, MyClass>("foo", 123, true, new MyClass());
var item1 = tuple.Item1; // "foo"
var item2 = tuple.Item2; // 123
var item3 = tuple.Item3; // true
var item4 = tuple.Item4; // new My Class()

Creating tuples

Tuples are created using generic types Tuple<T1>-Tuple<T1,T2,T3,T4,T5,T6,T7,T8>. Each of the types represents a tuple containing 1 to 8 elements. Elements can be of different types.

// tuple with 4 elements
var tuple = new Tuple<string, int, bool, MyClass>("foo", 123, true, new MyClass());

Tuples can also be created using static Tuple.Create methods. In this case, the types of the elements are inferred by the C# Compiler.

// tuple with 4 elements
var tuple = Tuple.Create("foo", 123, true, new MyClass());

Since C# 7.0, Tuples can be easily created using ValueTuple.

var tuple = ("foo", 123, true, new MyClass());

Elements can be named for easier decomposition.

(int number, bool flag, MyClass instance) tuple = (123, true, new MyClass());

Comparing and sorting Tuples

Tuples can be compared based on their elements.

As an example, an enumerable whose elements are of type Tuple can be sorted based on comparisons operators defined on a specified element:

List<Tuple<int, string>> list = new List<Tuple<int, string>>();
list.Add(new Tuple<int, string>(2, "foo"));
list.Add(new Tuple<int, string>(1, "bar"));
list.Add(new Tuple<int, string>(3, "qux"));

list.Sort((a, b) => a.Item2.CompareTo(b.Item2)); //sort based on the string element

foreach (var element in list) {
    Console.WriteLine(element);
}

// Output:
// (1, bar)
// (2, foo)
// (3, qux)

Or to reverse the sort use:

list.Sort((a, b) => b.Item2.CompareTo(a.Item2));

Return multiple values from a method

Tuples can be used to return multiple values from a method without using out parameters. In the following example AddMultiply is used to return two values (sum, product).

void Write()
{
    var result = AddMultiply(25, 28);
    Console.WriteLine(result.Item1);
    Console.WriteLine(result.Item2);
}

Tuple<int, int> AddMultiply(int a, int b)
{
    return new Tuple<int, int>(a + b, a * b);
}

Output:

53
700

Now C# 7.0 offers an alternative way to return multiple values from methods using value tuples More info about ValueTuple struct.