What is the difference between sets and lists in Python?

Question

Is the only difference between sets and lists in Python the fact that you can use the union, intersect, difference, symmetric difference functions to compare two sets? Why c

Answer 1

Set represents a collection of distinct elements. In python, sets are mainly used for two reasons (Book: Data Science from Scratch, Joel Gruce):

1. For faster operation: in is a very fast operation on sets. If we have a large collection of elements and if we wish to perform membership test, in that case it is appropriate to use set instead of a list.

2. To find a distinct items in a collections. Programmers use sets much less frequently than dicts and lists.