Tuple Class

A tuple is a data structure that has a specific number and sequence of elements introduced in .net Framework 4. That is, a Tuple<int, string, int> is a tuple that contains exactly three items: an int, followed by a string, followed by an int.  The sequence is important not only to distinguish between two members of the tuple with the same type, but also for comparisons between tuples. 

Some people tend to love tuples because they give you a quick way to combine multiple values into one result. 

Tuples are commonly used in four ways:

• To represent a single set of data. For example, a tuple can represent a database record, and its components can represent individual fields of the record.
• To provide easy access to, and manipulation of, a data set.
• To return multiple values from a method without using out parameters (in C#) or ByRef parameters (in Visual Basic).
• To pass multiple values to a method through a single parameter. For example, the Thread.Start(Object) method has a single parameter that lets you supply one value to the method that the thread executes at startup time. If you supply a Tuple<T1, T2, T3> object as the method argument, you can supply the thread’s startup routine with three items of data.

Examples

The following example creates an 8-tuple (octuple) that contains prime numbers that are less than 20.

var population = new Tuple<string, int, int, int, int, int, int, long>(

                           "New York", 7891957, 7781984,

                           7894862, 7071639, 7322564, 8008278, 80);