[python] How to represent matrices in python

((1,2,3,4),
 (5,6,7,8),
 (9,0,1,2))

Using tuples instead of lists makes it marginally harder to change the data structure in unwanted ways.

If you are going to do extensive use of those, you are best off wrapping a true number array in a class, so you can define methods and properties on them. (Or, you could NumPy, SciPy, ... if you are going to do your processing with those libraries.)