Commit 65674b80 authored by Raymond Hettinger's avatar Raymond Hettinger

Documentation for set objects.

parent 1b92fd5b
......@@ -2053,6 +2053,43 @@ always creates a tuple, and unpacking works for any sequence.
% XXX Add a bit on the difference between tuples and lists.
\section{Sets \label{sets}}
Python also includes a data type for \emph{sets}. A set is an unordered
collection with no duplicate elements. Basic uses include membership
testing and eliminating duplicate entries. Set objects also support
mathematical operations like union, intersection, difference, and
symmetric difference.
Here is a brief demonstration:
\begin{verbatim}
>>> basket = ['apple', 'orange', 'apple', 'pear', 'orange', 'banana']
>>> fruits = set(basket) # create a set without duplicates
>>> fruits
set(['orange', 'pear', 'apple', 'banana'])
>>> 'orange' in fruits # fast membership testing
True
>>> 'crabgrass' in fruits
False
>>> # Demonstrate set operations on unique letters from two words
...
>>> a = set('abracadabra')
>>> b = set('alacazam')
>>> a # unique letters in a
set(['a', 'r', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
>>> a - b # letters in a but not in b
set(['r', 'd', 'b'])
>>> a | b # letters in either a or b
set(['a', 'c', 'r', 'd', 'b', 'm', 'z', 'l'])
>>> a & b # letters in both a and b
set(['a', 'c'])
>>> a ^ b # letters in a or b but not both
set(['r', 'd', 'b', 'm', 'z', 'l'])
\end{verbatim}
\section{Dictionaries \label{dictionaries}}
Another useful data type built into Python is the
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