All 15 Dataclasses & NamedTuples questions
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What does the @dataclass decorator automatically generate for a class? How do you specify default values for dataclass fields, and what ordering restriction applies? Why can't you use a mutable default value (like an empty list) directly as a dataclass field default, and how do you use field(default_factory=...) to fix it? How do you make a dataclass immutable (read-only after creation) using frozen=True? How does typing.NamedTuple differ from collections.namedtuple in terms of syntax and type annotation support? How do you add validation logic to a dataclass field using __post_init__? How do you use dataclasses.field(compare=False) or field(repr=False) to exclude a specific field from the auto-generated __eq__ or __repr__? How do you implement custom ordering (<, <=, >, >=) for a dataclass using order=True, and what constraint does it place on field comparison? How do you convert a dataclass instance to and from a dictionary using dataclasses.asdict() and manual reconstruction? How would you implement inheritance between dataclasses, and what field-ordering rule must be respected across the hierarchy?
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How do you create a simple immutable record using collections.namedtuple?

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Answer

namedtuple(typename, field_names) creates a NEW tuple subclass whose elements can be accessed both by INDEX (like a regular tuple) and by NAMED ATTRIBUTE, combining a tuple's lightweight immutability with readable, self-documenting field access.
from collections import namedtuple

Point = namedtuple("Point", ["x", "y"])
p = Point(1, 2)
print(p.x, p.y)   # 1 2 -- named attribute access
print(p[0], p[1]) # 1 2 -- also works like a regular tuple
Real-world example Representing a simple, lightweight, immutable record (like a coordinate or RGB color) without the overhead of a full class.

Common follow-ups: How does namedtuple compare to a regular tuple in terms of memory usage?

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All 15 Dataclasses & NamedTuples questions