python sets tutorial

Everything You Need To Know About Python Sets

Python sets can be confusing for beginner coders. However, once you get familiar with the syntax and understand how sets work, you'll be able to use them to streamline your code and make it more efficient. In this tutorial, we'll provide a full guide on Python sets, including how to create them, add and remove elements, loop through them, and more.

What is a Set in Python?

A set in Python is an unordered collection of items that are unique and immutable (cannot be modified). It's similar to the idea of a mathematical set, which contains unique elements and doesn't allow duplicates. In Python, we use curly braces to indicate a set. For example, {1, 2, 3} is a set.

How to Create a Set in Python?

Creating a set in Python is easy. All you have to do is use the set() function. This takes in an iterable object and returns a set. This iterable object can be a tuple, list, dictionary, or even a string. Let's look at a couple of examples.

For a list:

list1 = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4] 
# create a set using the set() function 
set1 = set(list1) 

print(set1) 
# Output: {1, 2, 3, 4}

For a string:

string1 = "apple" 
# create a set using the set() function 
set2 = set(string1) 

print(set2) 
# Output: {'p', 'l', 'e', 'a'}

How to Add and Remove Elements to a Set?

If you want to add and remove elements from a set, there are a few different methods. The simplest way is to use the add() and remove() methods. These take one argument each, which can be either an element or a list of elements.

#create a set
my_set = {1, 2, 3}

#add elements using add()
my_set.add(4) #{1,2,3,4}

#remove elements using remove()
my_set.remove(2) #{1,3,4}

You can also use the update() method to add multiple elements to the set at once. This method takes in a list or set as an argument and adds all the elements to the original set.

my_set = {1, 2, 3}
new_elements = [4, 5, 6]

#add multiple elements using update()
my_set.update(new_elements) #{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

How to Loop Through a Set?

To loop through a set, you can use a for loop. This will iterate over each element in the set, allowing you to perform an action on each element. Here's an example:

#create a set
my_set = {1, 2, 3, 4}

#loop through the set
for element in my_set:
    print(element) 
#output: 1
#        2
#        3
#        4

Conclusion

Python sets are powerful tools for storing and manipulating data. We hope this tutorial has given you an understanding of the basics of sets so that you can start using them in your own projects. If you want to learn more about Python sets, check out our other tutorials.