Practical example where Tuple can be used in .Net 4.0?

Question

I have seen the Tuple introduced in .Net 4 but I am not able to imagine where it can be used. We can always make a Custom class or Struct.

Answer 1

That's the point - it is more convenient not to make a custom class or struct all the time. It is an improvement like Action or Func... you can make this types yourself, but it's convenient that they exist in the framework.

Answer 2

With tuples you could easily implement a two-dimensional dictionary (or n-dimensional for that matter). For example, you could use such a dictionary to implement a currency exchange mapping:

var forex = new Dictionary<Tuple<string, string>, decimal>(); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("USD", "EUR"), 0.74850m); // 1 USD = 0.74850 EUR forex.Add(Tuple.Create("USD", "GBP"), 0.64128m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("EUR", "USD"), 1.33635m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("EUR", "GBP"), 0.85677m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("GBP", "USD"), 1.55938m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("GBP", "EUR"), 1.16717m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("USD", "USD"), 1.00000m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("EUR", "EUR"), 1.00000m); forex.Add(Tuple.Create("GBP", "GBP"), 1.00000m);  decimal result; result = 35.0m * forex[Tuple.Create("USD", "EUR")]; // USD 35.00 = EUR 26.20 result = 35.0m * forex[Tuple.Create("EUR", "GBP")]; // EUR 35.00 = GBP 29.99 result = 35.0m * forex[Tuple.Create("GBP", "USD")]; // GBP 35.00 = USD 54.58