Mathematical Operations Part 1

Part of the Logic & Flow section of Coddy's Python journey — lesson 33 of 78.

Sets support mathematical operations such as union, intersection, difference, and symmetric difference. These operations are useful for comparing and combining sets in various ways.

Union (| or union()): Combines the elements from both sets, excluding duplicates.

set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {3, 4, 5}
union_set = set1 | set2
print(union_set)
# Output: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Intersection (& or intersection()): Returns a set containing only the elements that are common to both sets.

set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {3, 4, 5}
intersection_set = set1 & set2
print(intersection_set)
# Output: {3}

Difference (- or difference()): Returns a set containing the elements that are in the first set but not in the second set.

set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {3, 4, 5}
difference_set = set1 - set2
print(difference_set)
# Output: {1, 2}

Symmetric Difference (^ or symmetric_difference()): Returns a set containing the elements that are in either of the sets, but not in both.

set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {3, 4, 5}
symmetric_difference_set = set1 ^ set2
print(symmetric_difference_set)
# Output: {1, 2, 4, 5}

Challenge

Easy

Create a function named set_operations that takes two sets, set1 and set2, as arguments. The function should perform the following operations:

Calculate the union of set1 and set2.
Calculate the intersection of set1 and set2.
Calculate the difference of set1 and set2 (elements in set1 but not in set2).
Calculate the symmetric difference of set1 and set2.
Return a dictionary containing the results of these operations, with the keys "union", "intersection", "difference", and "symmetric_difference".

Cheat sheet

Sets support mathematical operations for comparing and combining sets:

Union (| or union()): Combines elements from both sets, excluding duplicates.

set1 = {1, 2, 3}
set2 = {3, 4, 5}
union_set = set1 | set2  # {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Intersection (& or intersection()): Returns elements common to both sets.

intersection_set = set1 & set2  # {3}

Difference (- or difference()): Returns elements in the first set but not in the second.

difference_set = set1 - set2  # {1, 2}

Symmetric Difference (^ or symmetric_difference()): Returns elements in either set, but not in both.

symmetric_difference_set = set1 ^ set2  # {1, 2, 4, 5}

Try it yourself

def set_operations(set1, set2):
    # Calculate the union
    union_result = 

    # Calculate the intersection
    intersection_result = 

    # Calculate the difference
    difference_result = 

    # Calculate the symmetric difference
    symmetric_difference_result = 

    # Return a dictionary containing the results
    return {
        "union": union_result,
        "intersection": intersection_result,
        "difference": difference_result,
        "symmetric_difference": symmetric_difference_result
    }