Page Contents
Executive Page Summary

Introduction

Sets are one of the built-in data types in Python. They are an unordered collection of unique elements, and they can be used to perform various operations such as union, intersection, and difference. This guide provides an introduction to sets in Python, including their syntax, methods, and common use cases.

Creating a Set

To create a set in Python, you can use curly braces {} or the built-in set() function. Here's an example:

# Using curly braces
my_set = {'apple', 'banana', 'orange'}

# Using the set() function
my_set = set(['apple', 'banana', 'orange'])

Note that sets are unordered, so the order of the elements may not be preserved.

Adding and Removing Elements

You can add elements to a set using the add() method, and you can remove elements using the remove() method. Here's an example:

my_set = {'apple', 'banana', 'orange'}

# Adding an element
my_set.add('pear')

# Removing an element
my_set.remove('banana')

Set Operations

Sets support various operations such as union, intersection, and difference. Here's an overview of these operations:

Union: Returns a set containing all the elements from both sets.
Intersection: Returns a set containing the elements that are common to both sets.
Difference: Returns a set containing the elements that are in one set but not the other.

Here's an example:

set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {2, 3, 4}

# Union
union_set = set1.union(set2)
print(union_set) # Output: {1, 2, 3, 4}

# Intersection
intersection_set = set1.intersection(set2)
print(intersection_set) # Output: {2, 3}

# Difference
difference_set = set1.difference(set2)
print(difference_set) # Output: {1}