Python Language Tutorial => Set Operations using Methods and Builtins

Example

We define two sets a and b

>>> a = {1, 2, 2, 3, 4}
>>> b = {3, 3, 4, 4, 5}

NOTE: {1} creates a set of one element, but {} creates an empty dict. The correct way to create an empty set is set().

Intersection

a.intersection(b) returns a new set with elements present in both a and b

>>> a.intersection(b)
{3, 4}

Union

a.union(b) returns a new set with elements present in either a and b

>>> a.union(b)
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Difference

a.difference(b) returns a new set with elements present in a but not in b

>>> a.difference(b)
{1, 2}
>>> b.difference(a)
{5}

Symmetric Difference

a.symmetric_difference(b) returns a new set with elements present in either a or b but not in both

>>> a.symmetric_difference(b)
{1, 2, 5}
>>> b.symmetric_difference(a)
{1, 2, 5}

NOTE: a.symmetric_difference(b) == b.symmetric_difference(a)

Subset and superset

c.issubset(a) tests whether each element of c is in a.

a.issuperset(c) tests whether each element of c is in a.

>>> c = {1, 2}
>>> c.issubset(a)
True
>>> a.issuperset(c)
True

The latter operations have equivalent operators as shown below:

Method	Operator
`a.intersection(b)`	`a & b`
`a.union(b)`	`a`\|`b`
`a.difference(b)`	`a - b`
`a.symmetric_difference(b)`	`a ^ b`
`a.issubset(b)`	`a <= b`
`a.issuperset(b)`	`a >= b`

Disjoint sets

Sets a and d are disjoint if no element in a is also in d and vice versa.

>>> d = {5, 6}
>>> a.isdisjoint(b) # {2, 3, 4} are in both sets
False
>>> a.isdisjoint(d)
True

# This is an equivalent check, but less efficient
>>> len(a & d) == 0
True

# This is even less efficient
>>> a & d == set()
True

Testing membership

The builtin in keyword searches for occurances

>>> 1 in a
True
>>> 6 in a
False

Length

The builtin len() function returns the number of elements in the set

>>> len(a)
4
>>> len(b)
3

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Python Language

Fastest Entity Framework Extensions

Example

Intersection

Union

Difference

Symmetric Difference

Subset and superset

Disjoint sets

Testing membership

Length

Got any Python Language Question?

Python Language

Python Language Set Set Operations using Methods and Builtins

Fastest Entity Framework Extensions

Example

Intersection

Union

Difference

Symmetric Difference

Subset and superset

Disjoint sets

Testing membership

Length

Got any Python Language Question?