An Introduction to Python Sets - Part I

Defining set objects in Python

You must have come across sets and set theory in your high school education. It’s the same class where you used to draw these cool overlapping circles called Venn diagrams.

A Venn Diagram (Source : realpython.com [link])

While a rigorous definition of a set can be abstract, a set can be simply defined as an unordered collection of items. Every element in a set is unique (no duplicates) and a variety of operations like union, intersection etc. can be performed on a set.

Grouping objects into a set can be useful in programming as well, and Python provides a built-in set type to do so. What you’ll learn in this tutorial:

1. How to define set objects in Python
2. Discover some of the operations supported natively.
3. Set operations in detail and get a understanding as to when a set is an appropriate choice.

This tutorial has been divided into three parts for ease of access. Link to tutorial for part II and III will be added soon.

Defining a Set

There are two ways to define a set in Python:

• built-in set() function
• with curly braces {}

Using set function