Is there a difference between 'and' and '&' with respect to python sets?

Question

I got very good help for question check if dictionary key has empty value . But I was wondering if there is a difference between and and & in p

Answer 1

• and is logical and
• & is bitwise and

logical and returns the second value if both values evaluate to true.

For sets & is intersection.

If you do:

In [25]: a = {1, 2, 3}

In [26]: b = {3, 4, 5}

In [27]: a and b
Out[27]: set([3, 4, 5])

In [28]: a & b
Out[28]: set([3])

This be because bool(a) == True and bool(b) == True so and returns the second set. & returns the intersection of the sets.

(set doc)