In Python, a set is a collection of unique elements with no specific order. The elements in a set are enclosed in curly braces {}
, separated by commas.
Here’s an example of how to create a set:
my_set = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
This creates a set containing the elements 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Here are some key characteristics of sets in Python:
- Sets are unordered, meaning the elements are not stored in any particular order.
- Sets only contain unique elements. If you try to add a duplicate element to a set, it will be ignored.
- Sets can contain elements of different data types (e.g., integers, strings, floats).
Here are some examples of operations that can be performed on sets:
# Adding elements to a set
my_set.add(6)
my_set.update({7, 8})
# Removing elements from a set
my_set.discard(5)
my_set.remove(4)
# Set operations (union, intersection, difference)
set1 = {1, 2, 3, 4}
set2 = {3, 4, 5, 6}
union_set = set1.union(set2)
intersection_set = set1.intersection(set2)
difference_set = set1.difference(set2)
In the code above, we add elements to my_set
, remove elements from it, and perform set operations on two different sets (set1
and set2
). The resulting sets are stored in new variables union_set
, intersection_set
, and difference_set
.
Overall, sets are a powerful and useful data structure in Python, particularly for working with collections of unique elements
.