🧙‍♂️ The Tale of the Mystic Sets

Once upon a time in the magical land of Pythonia, there lived three wizards: Roger, Syd, and Luna. These wizards were always up to cool tricks, and today, they discovered a powerful magical object called a Set.

Now, Sets in Pythonia were special. They weren’t like scrolls (aka lists 📜) where things were arranged in order. Nope. Sets didn’t care about who came first or last. And unlike potions (tuples), they weren’t fixed forever—they could change! 💫

So, here’s how the wizards created one:

names = {"Roger", "Syd"}

Poof! A set named names appeared, filled with “Roger” and “Syd”. Just like that. No spells needed.

⚔️ The Battle of the Intersecting Sets

One day, Roger was curious. He wondered, “Which of my friends are also friends with Luna?”

So they created two sets:

set1 = {"Roger", "Syd"}
set2 = {"Roger"}

To find out who was in both sets, they used the intersection spell:

intersect = set1 & set2
print(intersect)  # {'Roger'}

Only Roger appeared in both places. So the result was {'Roger'}. Nice!

🫱🏽‍🫲🏾 The Union of Realms

Now Luna wanted to combine forces. She used the union spell to bring everyone together:

set1 = {"Roger", "Syd"}
set2 = {"Luna"}
union = set1 | set2
print(union)  # {'Roger', 'Syd', 'Luna'}

Just like that, all three wizards were united in one mighty set.

🧹 The Clean-Up – Finding Differences

But Syd noticed something strange. “Wait,” Syd said, “who’s in my team but not in Roger’s?” So they used the difference spell:

set1 = {"Roger", "Syd"}
set2 = {"Roger"}
difference = set1 - set2
print(difference)  # {'Syd'}

Turns out it was just Syd! Mystery solved 🔍.

👑 The Royal Check – Superset and Subset

Roger got a little proud. “Am I the big boss here? Is my set a superset of yours?” he asked Syd.

set1 = {"Roger", "Syd"}
set2 = {"Roger"}
isSuperset = set1 > set2
print(isSuperset)  # True

Yup! Roger’s set had everything Syd had… and more.

📦 Counting and Converting the Set

Later, Luna wanted to count how many friends were in the group:

names = {"Roger", "Syd"}
print(len(names))  # 2

Easy peasy—just 2!

She also wanted to turn the set into a list (because scrolls are prettier):

list_names = list(names)
print(list_names)  # ['Roger', 'Syd']

Boom! Just like that, the set became a scroll (a list)! 🎉

🧐 Membership Check

One last thing. Roger asked, “Am I even in this set?”

print("Roger" in names)  # True

And the answer came back: True. You’re in, my wizardly friend.

✨ Moral of the Story:

Sets in Python are like magical bags:

  • They hold unique items.
  • They don’t care about order.
  • You can combine them, compare them, subtract from them, and even change them—unless it’s a frozenset (more on that icy fellow later ❄️).
  • They’re fast, super useful when you just want to know who’s in or who’s out, no duplicates allowed.

✅ Review Time! Let’s check what you’ve learned:

  1. What happens when you add duplicate values to a Python set?
  2. How do you find common elements between two sets?
  3. What will len({"Roger", "Roger", "Syd"}) return?
  4. How do you check if a set is a subset of another?
  5. Turn this set into a list: {"Code", "Debug", "Repeat"}. What function do you use?

Keep playing with sets like you’re in your own Python adventure game. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll create the next wizard-level program that saves the world. 🌍💻

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