How difference() works in Python

The difference() method in Python returns a set, which contains the set difference of two sets.

To understand the set difference of two sets, consider two sets: Set A and Set B.

If we’re finding set difference (A-B), the new set would contain elements in Set A and omit any element that exists in Set B.

To better understand what set difference is, refer to Figure 1.

Figure 1: The set difference of these two sets (A - B) would be the elements that exist in the blue, shaded region.

Syntax

set1.symmetric_difference(set2)

Parameters and return value

This method requires only one set to be passed as a parameter. The elements of this set are checked, and not included in the returned set.

Code

x = {'Cats', 'Dogs', 'Elephants', 'Seals'}
y = {'Dogs', 'Lions', 'Seals', 'Parrots'}
z = x.difference(y)
print(z)

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