Set Operations in Python
A set is a collection which is unordered, unindexed, and has no duplicate elements.
Creating a Set
You can create a set by placing comma-separated values inside curly brackets {}.
x = {1, 2, 3, 4, "python", "Django"}
Adding Elements to a Set
add(): Adds a single element to the set.update(): Adds multiple elements to the set; needs to be passed as a list.
x.add("element")
x.update(["element1", "element2"])
Removing Elements from a Set
remove(): Removes the specified element; raises an error if the element does not exist.discard(): Removes the specified element; does not raise an error if the element does not exist.
x.remove("element1")
x.discard("element2")
Set Operations
Union
Combines all unique elements from both sets.
- Using the pipe
|operator:python set1 | set2 - Using
union()method:python set1.union(set2)
Intersection
Gets only the elements that are present in both sets.
- Using the
&operator:python set1 & set2 - Using
intersection()method:python set1.intersection(set2)
Difference
Gets elements that are present in the first set but not in the second set.
- Using the
-operator:python set1 - set2 - Using
difference()method:python set1.difference(set2)
Symmetric Difference
Gets elements that are present in either of the sets, but not in both.
- Using the
^operator:python set1 ^ set2 - Using
symmetric_difference()method:python set1.symmetric_difference(set2)