Tuple

This article is about the mathematical concept. For the musical term, see Tuplet.

"Octuple" redirects here. For the type of rowing boat, see Octuple scull.

"Duodecuple" redirects here. For the term in music, see Twelve-tone technique.

In mathematics, a tuple is a finite ordered list (sequence) of elements. An n-tuple is a sequence (or ordered list) of n elements, where n is a non-negative integer. There is only one 0-tuple, an empty sequence, or empty tuple, as it is referred to. An n-tuple is defined inductively using the construction of an ordered pair.

Mathematicians usually write tuples by listing the elements within parentheses "$({\text{ }})$" and separated by commas; for example, $(2,7,4,1,7)$ denotes a 5-tuple. Sometimes other symbols are used to surround the elements, such as square brackets "[ ]" or angle brackets "< >". Braces "{ }" are only used in defining arrays in some programming languages such as C++ and Java, but not in mathematical expressions, as they are the standard notation for sets. The term tuple can often occur when discussing other mathematical objects, such as vectors.

In computer science, tuples come in many forms. In dynamically typed languages, such as Lisp, lists are commonly used as tuples. Most typed functional programming languages implement tuples directly as product types, tightly associated with algebraic data types, pattern matching, and destructuring assignment. Many programming languages offer an alternative to tuples, known as record types, featuring unordered elements accessed by label. A few programming languages combine ordered tuple product types and unordered record types into a single construct, as in C structs and Haskell records. Relational databases may formally identify their rows (records) as tuples.

Tuples also occur in relational algebra; when programming the semantic web with the Resource Description Framework (RDF); in linguistics; and in philosophy.

Etymology

The term originated as an abstraction of the sequence: single, double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, septuple, octuple, ..., n‑tuple, ..., where the prefixes are taken from the Latin names of the numerals. The unique 0‑tuple is called the null tuple. A 1‑tuple is called a singleton, a 2‑tuple is called an ordered pair and a 3‑tuple is a triple or triplet. n can be any nonnegative integer. For example, a complex number can be represented as a 2‑tuple, a quaternion can be represented as a 4‑tuple, an octonion can be represented as an 8‑tuple and a sedenion can be represented as a 16‑tuple.

Although these uses treat ‑tuple as the suffix, the original suffix was ‑ple as in "triple" (three-fold) or "decuple" (ten‑fold). This originates from medieval Latin plus (meaning "more") related to Greek ‑πλοῦς, which replaced the classical and late antique ‑plex (meaning "folded"), as in "duplex".

Names for tuples of specific lengths

Table of names and variants for specific lengths

Tuple length, $n$ Name Alternative names 0 empty tuple unit / empty sequence / null tuple 1 single singleton / monuple / monad 2 double dual / couple / (ordered) pair / twin / duad 3 triple treble / triplet / triad 4 quadruple quad / tetrad 5 quintuple pentuple / quint / pentad 6 sextuple hextuple 7 septuple heptuple 8 octuple 9 nonuple 10 decuple 11 undecuple hendecuple 12 duodecuple 13 tredecuple 14 quattuordecuple 15 quindecuple 16 sexdecuple 17 septendecuple 18 octodecuple 19 novemdecuple 20 vigintuple 21 unvigintuple 22 duovigintuple 23 trevigintuple 24 quattuorvigintuple 25 quinvigintuple 26 sexvigintuple 27 septenvigintuple 28 octovigintuple 29 novemvigintuple 30 trigintuple 31 untrigintuple 40 quadragintuple 41 unquadragintuple 50 quinquagintuple 60 sexagintuple 70 septuagintuple 80 octogintuple 90 nongentuple 100 centuple 1,000 milluple

Properties

The general rule for the identity of two n-tuples is

$(a_{1},a_{2},\ldots ,a_{n})=(b_{1},b_{2},\ldots ,b_{n})$ if and only if $a_{1}=b_{1},{\text{ }}a_{2}=b_{2},{\text{ }}\ldots ,{\text{ }}a_{n}=b_{n}.$

Thus a tuple has properties that distinguish it from a set.

1. A tuple may contain multiple instances of the same element, so
   tuple $(1,2,2,3)\neq (1,2,3)$; but set $\{1,2,2,3\}=\{1,2,3\}$.
2. Tuple elements are ordered: tuple $(1,2,3)\neq (3,2,1)$, but set $\{1,2,3\}=\{3,2,1\}$.
3. A tuple has a finite number of elements, while a set or a multiset may have an infinite number of elements.

Definitions

There are several definitions of tuples that give them the properties described in the previous section.

Tuples as functions

If we are dealing with sets, an n-tuple can be regarded as a function, F, whose domain is the tuple's implicit set of element indices, X, and whose codomain, Y, is the tuple's set of elements. Formally:

$(a_{1},a_{2},\dots ,a_{n})\equiv (X,Y,F)$

where:

${\begin{aligned}X&=\{1,2,\dots ,n\}\\Y&=\{a_{1},a_{2},\ldots ,a_{n}\}\\F&=\{(1,a_{1}),(2,a_{2}),\ldots ,(n,a_{n})\}.\\\end{aligned}}$

In slightly less formal notation this says:

$(a_{1},a_{2},\dots ,a_{n}):=(F(1),F(2),\dots ,F(n)).$

Tuples as nested ordered pairs

Another way of modeling tuples in Set Theory is as nested ordered pairs. This approach assumes that the notion of ordered pair has already been defined; thus a 2-tuple

1. The 0-tuple (i.e. the empty tuple) is represented by the empty set $\emptyset$.
2. An n-tuple, with n > 0, can be defined as an ordered pair of its first entry and an (n − 1)-tuple (which contains the remaining entries when n > 1):

   $(a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},\ldots ,a_{n})=(a_{1},(a_{2},a_{3},\ldots ,a_{n}))$

This definition can be applied recursively to the (n − 1)-tuple:

$(a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},\ldots ,a_{n})=(a_{1},(a_{2},(a_{3},(\ldots ,(a_{n},\emptyset )\ldots ))))$

Thus, for example:

${\begin{aligned}(1,2,3)&=(1,(2,(3,\emptyset )))\\(1,2,3,4)&=(1,(2,(3,(4,\emptyset ))))\\\end{aligned}}$

A variant of this definition starts "peeling off" elements from the other end:

1. The 0-tuple is the empty set $\emptyset$.
2. For n > 0:

   $(a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},\ldots ,a_{n})=((a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},\ldots ,a_{n-1}),a_{n})$

This definition can be applied recursively:

$(a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},\ldots ,a_{n})=((\ldots (((\emptyset ,a_{1}),a_{2}),a_{3}),\ldots ),a_{n})$

Thus, for example:

${\begin{aligned}(1,2,3)&=(((\emptyset ,1),2),3)\\(1,2,3,4)&=((((\emptyset ,1),2),3),4)\\\end{aligned}}$

Tuples as nested sets

Using Kuratowski's representation for an ordered pair, the second definition above can be reformulated in terms of pure set theory:

1. The 0-tuple (i.e. the empty tuple) is represented by the empty set $\emptyset$;
2. Let $x$ be an n-tuple $(a_{1},a_{2},\ldots ,a_{n})$, and let $x\rightarrow b\equiv (a_{1},a_{2},\ldots ,a_{n},b)$. Then, $x\rightarrow b\equiv \{\{x\},\{x,b\}\}$. (The right arrow, $\rightarrow$, could be read as "adjoined with".)

In this formulation:

${\begin{array}{lclcl}()&&&=&\emptyset \\&&&&\\(1)&=&()\rightarrow 1&=&\{\{()\},\{(),1\}\}\\&&&=&\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\}\\&&&&\\(1,2)&=&(1)\rightarrow 2&=&\{\{(1)\},\{(1),2\}\}\\&&&=&\{\{\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\}\},\\&&&&\{\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\},2\}\}\\&&&&\\(1,2,3)&=&(1,2)\rightarrow 3&=&\{\{(1,2)\},\{(1,2),3\}\}\\&&&=&\{\{\{\{\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\}\},\\&&&&\{\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\},2\}\}\},\\&&&&\{\{\{\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\}\},\\&&&&\{\{\{\emptyset \},\{\emptyset ,1\}\},2\}\},3\}\}\\\end{array}}$

n-tuples of m-sets

In discrete mathematics, especially combinatorics and finite probability theory, n-tuples arise in the context of various counting problems and are treated more informally as ordered lists of length n. n-tuples whose entries come from a set of m elements are also called arrangements with repetition, permutations of a multiset and, in some non-English literature, variations with repetition. The number of n-tuples of an m-set is mⁿ. This follows from the combinatorial rule of product. If S is a finite set of cardinality m, this number is the cardinality of the n-fold Cartesian power S × S × ... S. Tuples are elements of this product set.

Type theory

Main article: Product type

In type theory, commonly used in programming languages, a tuple has a product type; this fixes not only the length, but also the underlying types of each component. Formally:

$(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots ,x_{n}):{\mathsf {T}}_{1}\times {\mathsf {T}}_{2}\times \ldots \times {\mathsf {T}}_{n}$

and the projections are term constructors:

$\pi _{1}(x):{\mathsf {T}}_{1},~\pi _{2}(x):{\mathsf {T}}_{2},~\ldots ,~\pi _{n}(x):{\mathsf {T}}_{n}$

The tuple with labeled elements used in the relational model has a record type. Both of these types can be defined as simple extensions of the simply typed lambda calculus.

The notion of a tuple in type theory and that in set theory are related in the following way: If we consider the natural model of a type theory, and use the Scott brackets to indicate the semantic interpretation, then the model consists of some sets $S_{1},S_{2},\ldots ,S_{n}$ (note: the use of italics here that distinguishes sets from types) such that:

$[\![{\mathsf {T}}_{1}]\!]=S_{1},~[\![{\mathsf {T}}_{2}]\!]=S_{2},~\ldots ,~[\![{\mathsf {T}}_{n}]\!]=S_{n}$

and the interpretation of the basic terms is:

$[\![x_{1}]\!]\in [\![{\mathsf {T}}_{1}]\!],~[\![x_{2}]\!]\in [\![{\mathsf {T}}_{2}]\!],~\ldots ,~[\![x_{n}]\!]\in [\![{\mathsf {T}}_{n}]\!]$.

The n-tuple of type theory has the natural interpretation as an n-tuple of set theory:

$[\![(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots ,x_{n})]\!]=(\,[\![x_{1}]\!],[\![x_{2}]\!],\ldots ,[\![x_{n}]\!]\,)$

The unit type has as semantic interpretation the 0-tuple.

See also

• Arity
• Exponential object
• Formal language
• OLAP: Multidimensional Expressions
• Prime k-tuple
• Relation (mathematics)
• Tuplespace

Sources

• D'Angelo, John P.; West, Douglas B. (2000), Mathematical Thinking/Problem-Solving and Proofs (2nd ed.), Prentice-Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-014412-6
• Keith Devlin, The Joy of Sets. Springer Verlag, 2nd ed., 1993, ISBN 0-387-94094-4, pp. 7–8
• Abraham Adolf Fraenkel, Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, Azriel Lévy, Foundations of school Set Theory, Elsevier Studies in Logic Vol. 67, 2nd Edition, revised, 1973, ISBN 0-7204-2270-1, p. 33
• Gaisi Takeuti, W. M. Zaring, Introduction to Axiomatic Set Theory, Springer GTM 1, 1971, ISBN 978-0-387-90024-7, p. 14
• George J. Tourlakis, Lecture Notes in Logic and Set Theory. Volume 2: Set Theory, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-521-75374-6, pp. 182–193

External links

• The dictionary definition of tuple at Wiktionary