Chapter 6. Python Data Structures

In our examples so far, we've already seen many of the built-in Python data structures in action. You've probably also covered many of them in introductory books or tutorials. In this chapter, we'll be discussing the object-oriented features of these data structures, when they should be used instead of a regular class, and when they should not be used. In particular, we'll be covering:

• Tuples and named tuples
• Dictionaries
• Lists and sets
• How and why to extend built-in objects
• Three types of queues

Empty objects

Let's start with the most basic Python built-in, one that we've seen many times already, the one that we've extended in every class we have created: the object. Technically, we can instantiate an object without writing a subclass:

>>> o = object()
>>> o.x = 5
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'object' object...