NamedTuple
NamedTuples are, as their name suggests, named Tuples. That is, they're a tuple-like collection of values, where each entry has a unique name, represented as a Symbol. Like Tuples, NamedTuples are immutable; neither the names nor the values can be modified in place after construction.
A named tuple can be created as a tuple literal with keys, e.g. (a=1, b=2), or as a tuple literal with semicolon after the opening parenthesis, e.g. (; a=1, b=2) (this form also accepts programmatically generated names as described below), or using a NamedTuple type as constructor, e.g. NamedTuple{(:a, :b)}((1,2)).
Accessing the value associated with a name in a named tuple can be done using field access syntax, e.g. x.a, or using getindex, e.g. x[:a] or x[(:a, :b)]. A tuple of the names can be obtained using keys, and a tuple of the values can be obtained using values.
tip Note
Iteration over NamedTuples produces the values without the names. (See example below.) To iterate over the name-value pairs, use the pairs function.
The @NamedTuple macro can be used for conveniently declaring NamedTuple types.
Examples
julia> x = (a=1, b=2)
(a = 1, b = 2)
julia> x.a
1
julia> x[:a]
1
julia> x[(:a,)]
(a = 1,)
julia> keys(x)
(:a, :b)
julia> values(x)
(1, 2)
julia> collect(x)
2-element Vector{Int64}:
1
2
julia> collect(pairs(x))
2-element Vector{Pair{Symbol, Int64}}:
:a => 1
:b => 2
In a similar fashion as to how one can define keyword arguments programmatically, a named tuple can be created by giving pairs name::Symbol => value after a semicolon inside a tuple literal. This and the name=value syntax can be mixed:
julia> (; :a => 1, :b => 2, c=3)
(a = 1, b = 2, c = 3)
The name-value pairs can also be provided by splatting a named tuple or any iterator that yields two-value collections holding each a symbol as first value:
julia> keys = (:a, :b, :c); values = (1, 2, 3);
julia> NamedTuple{keys}(values)
(a = 1, b = 2, c = 3)
julia> (; (keys .=> values)...)
(a = 1, b = 2, c = 3)
julia> nt1 = (a=1, b=2);
julia> nt2 = (c=3, d=4);
julia> (; nt1..., nt2..., b=20) # the final b overwrites the value from nt1
(a = 1, b = 20, c = 3, d = 4)
julia> (; zip(keys, values)...) # zip yields tuples such as (:a, 1)
(a = 1, b = 2, c = 3)
As in keyword arguments, identifiers and dot expressions imply names:
julia> x = 0
0
julia> t = (; x)
(x = 0,)
julia> (; t.x)
(x = 0,)
tip Julia 1.5
Implicit names from identifiers and dot expressions are available as of Julia 1.5.
tip Julia 1.7
Use of getindex methods with multiple Symbols is available as of Julia 1.7.