Set Deduplication: Creation and Common Operations of Python Sets

Python sets are efficient tools for handling unordered, non - duplicate data, with core applications in deduplication and set operations. Creation methods include directly defining with `{}` (note that an empty set must use `set()`, as `{}` is a dictionary) or converting iterable objects like lists using the `set()` function. Common operations include: adding elements with `add()`, removing with `remove()` (which raises an error if the element does not exist) or `discard()` (for safe deletion), and `pop()` for randomly deleting elements. Set operations are rich, such as intersection (`&`/`intersection()`), union (`|`/`union()`), and difference (`-`/`difference()`). Key characteristics: unordered (cannot be indexed), elements must be immutable types (such as numbers, strings, tuples), and cannot contain lists or dictionaries. In practice, deduplicating a list can be directly done with `list(set(duplicate_list))` (order is random); since Python 3.7+, combining with a list comprehension `[x for x in my_list if not (x in seen or seen.add(x))]` can maintain the order. Mastering set creation, operations, characteristics, and deduplication methods enables efficient resolution of data deduplication and set operation problems.