PYTHON
Managing Unique Elements and Set Operations
Master Python's `set` data structure for removing duplicates, performing unions, intersections, and differences efficiently on collections of items.
# Remove duplicates from a list
numbers = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 1]
unique_numbers = set(numbers)
print(f"Original list: {numbers}")
print(f"Unique numbers (set): {unique_numbers}")
print(f"Unique numbers (list): {list(unique_numbers)}")
# Set operations
set_a = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
set_b = {4, 5, 6, 7, 8}
print(f"Set A: {set_a}")
print(f"Set B: {set_b}")
# Union (elements in A or B or both)
union_set = set_a.union(set_b)
print(f"Union (A | B): {union_set}")
# Intersection (elements in both A and B)
intersection_set = set_a.intersection(set_b)
print(f"Intersection (A & B): {intersection_set}")
# Difference (elements in A but not in B)
difference_set = set_a.difference(set_b)
print(f"Difference (A - B): {difference_set}")
# Symmetric Difference (elements in A or B but not both)
symmetric_difference_set = set_a.symmetric_difference(set_b)
print(f"Symmetric Difference (A ^ B): {symmetric_difference_set}")
How it works: Python's `set` is an unordered collection of unique hashable elements. It's highly optimized for checking membership and performing mathematical set operations like union, intersection, difference, and symmetric difference. Converting a list to a set is a common and efficient way to remove duplicate items.