Sets

Tue 27 January 2015

Filed under Python

Sets

First: What is a 'set'?

In very short, a set is a collection with no duplicates.

For example: We have a list of names: names = ['Alice', 'Bill', 'Jane', 'Jack', 'Bill']. Bill is in that list twice. When we call set(names), we will get back that list with Bill there only once. ['Alice', 'Bill', 'Jane', 'Jack']

The Syntax

set(iterable)

frozenset(iterable)

The iterable can be any iterable - list, string, etc.

**More about sets from the docs

A few more things about sets

There are 2 types of sets: the regular set() and frozenset().
- set is mutable. So we can add or remove or update items in the set.
- frozenset is immutable. And we cannot change anything about the set.
Sets are not ordered.

Once we are working with sets, we can do a few more cool things like:

These operations only work on set and frozenset datatypes.

operation #	description	syntax 1	syntax 2	results
is subset?	does set1 include all items in set2?	set1.issubset(set2)	set1 <= set2	returns True or False
is proper subset?	does set1 include all items in set2 AND set1 != set2?	--	set1 < set2 (without equal sign)	returns True or False
is superset?	are all items in set 1 in set2?	set1.issuperset(set2)	set1 >= set2	returns True or False
is proper superset?	are all items in set 1 in set2 AND set1 != set2?	--	set1 > set2	returns True or False
is disjointed?	are no items in set1 in set2?	set1.isdisjoint(set2)	--	returns True or False
union	return all elements from all sets	set1.union(set2) ** can have many .union(set3) ...	set1\|set2 (\| set 3 ...)	returns a set*
intersection	return all elements that all sets have in common	set1.intersection(set2) ** can have many .intersection(set3) ...	set1&set2 (& set 3 ...)	returns a set*
difference	return all elements that are in set1 but not in set 2	set1.difference(set2) ** can have many .difference(set3) ...	set1-set2 (- set 3 ...)	returns a set*
symmetric_difference	return all elements that in either set1 or set2, but not both.	set1.symmetric_difference(set2)	set1^set2	returns a set*

* If operations mix a set and frozenset, then the result is an instance of the first. So the result of set1 | frozenset2 is a set. The result of frozenset1 | set2 is a frozenset.

A few examples:

All these examples use these lists:

co_workers =["Zach", "Dave", "Jack", "Emily", "Zach"]
friends = ["Mary", "Lisa", "Jack", "Mary"]
neighbors = ["Annie", "Bill", "Mary", "Annie"]

Notice that each of those lists has a duplicate. So to make sure we don't include any duplicates, we'll call set() on each.

>>>set_coworkers = set(co_workers)
set(["Zach", "Dave", "Jack", "Emily"])

>>>set_friends = set(friends)
set(["Mary", "Lisa", "Jack"])

>>>set_neighbors = set(neighbors)
set(["Annie", "Bill", "Mary"])

intersection --> return all elements that all sets have in common

>>>set_neighbors.intersection(set_friends)
set(['Mary'])
>>>set_neighbors&set_friends
set(['Mary'])

union --> return all elements from all sets

>>>set_neighbors.union(set_friends).union(set_coworkers)
set(['Zach', 'Bill', 'Dave', 'Jack', 'Annie', 'Lisa', 'Mary', 'Emily'])
>>>set_neighbors|set_friends|set_coworkers
set(['Zach', 'Bill', 'Dave', 'Jack', 'Annie', 'Lisa', 'Mary', 'Emily'])

difference --> return all elements that are in set1 but not in set 2

>>>set_neighbors.difference(set_friends)
set(['Bill', 'Annie'])
>>>set_neighbors-set_friends
set(['Bill', 'Annie'])

>>>set_friends.difference(set_neighbors)
set(['Lisa', 'Jack'])
>>>set_friends-set_neighbors
set(['Lisa', 'Jack'])

symmetric_difference --> return all elements that in either set1 or set2, but not both.

>>> set_friends.symmetric_difference(set_neighbors)
set(['Lisa', 'Bill', 'Jack', 'Annie'])
>>> set_friends^set_neighbors
set(['Lisa', 'Bill', 'Jack', 'Annie'])

>>>set_friends.symmetric_difference(set_neighbors)
set(['Lisa', 'Bill', 'Jack', 'Annie'])
>>>set_neighbors^set_friends
set(['Lisa', 'Bill', 'Jack', 'Annie'])

Another set of operations for sets (only for set; not frozenset - as they are immutable)

operation #	description	syntax 1	syntax 2	results
update	update set1 with elements from set2 (and others...)	set1.update(set2) ** can have many .update(set3)	set1\|=set2 (\|=set3 ...)	returns a set
intersection update	updates set1 only with items that are common set1 and set2 (and other sets ...)	set1.intersection_update(set2) ** can have many more	set1&=set2 (without equal sign)	returns a set
difference update	updates set1 to include the items from set1 that are not found in the other sets (ie: removes from set1 all items that are found in other sets)	set1.difference_update(set2)	set1-=set2	returns a set
symmetric difference update	updates set1 with only the elements that are found in either set, but not both	set1.symmetric_difference_update(set2)	set1^=set2	returns a set
add	adds an element to the set	set1.add(element)	--	returns a set
remove	removes an element	set1.remove(element)		returns a set (raises `KeyError` is element is not in set)
discard	removes an element - only if it is present	set1.discard(element)	--	returns a set
pop	removes and returns an arbitrary item from the set	set1.pop()	--	returns the abritrary element (raises `KeyError` if set is empty)
clear	return an empty set (removes all elements in the set)	set1.clear()	--	returns an empty set

Sets

Sets

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