Sets in Python

Python Set

Set

A Set is an unordered and unindexed collection of elements written within curly brackets. Sets are iterable and mutable. A set can never have duplicate values. The repetition of items is not allowed in a set.

s={'j',452,'apple',True,9.7,120,False,'green','green'}

Once a set is created the items in the set can not be changed, however, we can add a new item with add() method. We can also add multiple items to set using the update() method. We can also remove the items using remove() or discard() methods. If the member item does not belong to the set than remove() method will raise an error.

We can also use the pop() method to remove an item from the set randomly. The clear() method is used to clear the entire set. To delete the complete set del keyword can be used.

A set can be iterated using the for-statement,

print('1.====================================')
s={'j',452,'apple',True,9.7,120,False,'green','green'}
for item in s:
  print(item)


Output:
1.====================================
False
True
green
452
9.7
apple
j
120

Adding items

A set can be updated with a single member(add() method)  or multiple elements together(update() method).

s={'j',452,'apple',True,9.7,120,False,'green','green'}
s.add(78) # ADD member
s.update([96,'red',4.12]) #update set
print(s)

Output:
{False, True, 'j', 96, 452, 4.12, 'green', 9.7, 'red', 78, 'apple', 120}

Removing members

The items of a set can be removed using remove() or discard() methods. The difference between them is that later will not raise an exception if the item does not exist in the set.

The pop() method removes the last item of the set but.as a set is unordered you will not be able to predict which element will be removed.

s={'j',452,'apple',True,9.7,120,False,'green','green'}
s.remove(True)
s.discard(9.7)
print(s)

#pop() method removes last item only.
print('After popping last item')
s.pop()
print(s)

Output:
{'apple', False, 452, 'j', 'green', 120}
After popping last item
{False, 452, 'j', 'green', 120}

Clear the Set

The clear() method is used to clear a set.

s1={'my','test', 'set'}
s1.clear()
print(s1)

Output:
set()

Deleting a Set

The del command can be used to delete an entire set,

s1={'my','test', 'set'}
del s1  # DELETE Set completely
#print(s1) #will raise an errror as s1 is already deleted completely
print('s1 deleted')

Output:
s1 deleted

Operations on Sets

We can use methods like intersection(), union(), difference(), symmetric_difference() and methods like isdisjoint(),issubset, issuperset() etc. to perform set operations in Python.

Example