Python: Essential Reference, Third Edition

Sets

A set is used to contain an unordered collection of objects. To create a set, use the set() function and supply a sequence of items such as follows:

s = set([3,5,9,10])       # Create a set of numbers
t = set("Hello")          # Create a set of characters

Unlike lists and tuples, sets are unordered and cannot be indexed in the same way. More over, the elements of a set are never duplicated. For example, if you print the value of t from the preceding code, you get the following:

>>> print t
set(['H', 'e', 'l', 'o'])

Notice that only one 'l' appears.

Sets support a standard collection of set operations, including union, intersection, difference, and symmetric difference. For example:

 a = t | s # Union of t and s b = t & s # Intersection of t and s c ...