Book Image

The Python Workshop

By : Olivier Pons, Andrew Bird, Dr. Lau Cher Han, Mario Corchero Jiménez, Graham Lee, Corey Wade
Book Image

The Python Workshop

By: Olivier Pons, Andrew Bird, Dr. Lau Cher Han, Mario Corchero Jiménez, Graham Lee, Corey Wade

Overview of this book

Have you always wanted to learn Python, but never quite known how to start? More applications than we realize are being developed using Python because it is easy to learn, read, and write. You can now start learning the language quickly and effectively with the help of this interactive tutorial. The Python Workshop starts by showing you how to correctly apply Python syntax to write simple programs, and how to use appropriate Python structures to store and retrieve data. You'll see how to handle files, deal with errors, and use classes and methods to write concise, reusable, and efficient code. As you advance, you'll understand how to use the standard library, debug code to troubleshoot problems, and write unit tests to validate application behavior. You'll gain insights into using the pandas and NumPy libraries for analyzing data, and the graphical libraries of Matplotlib and Seaborn to create impactful data visualizations. By focusing on entry-level data science, you'll build your practical Python skills in a way that mirrors real-world development. Finally, you'll discover the key steps in building and using simple machine learning algorithms. By the end of this Python book, you'll have the knowledge, skills and confidence to creatively tackle your own ambitious projects with Python.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

A Survey of Sets

So far, in this chapter, you have covered lists, dictionaries, and tuples. You can now have a look at sets, which are another type of Python data structure.

Sets are a relatively new addition to the Python collection type. They are unordered collections of unique and immutable objects that support operations mimicking mathematical set theory. As sets do not allow multiple occurrences of the same element, they can be used to effectively prevent duplicate values.

A set is a collection of objects (called members or elements). For instance, you can define set A as even numbers between 1 to 10, and it will contain {2,4,6,8,10}, and set B can be odd numbers between 1 to 10, and it will contain {1,3,5,7,9}. In the following exercise, you will get our hands on sets in Python:

Figure 2.21: Set A and Set B – each set contains a unique, distinct value

Exercise 32: Using Sets in Python

In this exercise, you will gain an understanding...