Utilizing Values within a Set

A Set is a collection of unordered elements, which means you cannot access specific elements using zero-based index numbers.

However, you can perform various operations such as calculating the sum of all elements, or checking for the presence of a specific element.

To calculate the sum of all elements within a set, you can use the sum() function.

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my_set = {1, 2, 3, 4}
sum_of_elements = sum(my_set)

print("sum_of_elements:", sum_of_elements)
# 10

In the above code, sum(my_set) returns the sum of all the elements within the my_set set.

To verify if a specific element exists within a set, you can use the in keyword.

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my_set = {1, 2, 3, 4}

# Checking if 2 is in the set
if 2 in my_set:
    print("2 exists in the set.")

In the above code, 2 in my_set checks if 2 exists within the my_set set.

If 2 is within my_set, 2 in my_set evaluates to True and the conditional statement is executed.

You can iterate over each element in the set using a for loop as shown below.

The for loop iterates over a given sequence (a series of elements like lists, tuples, or strings), performing repetitive tasks on each element.

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my_set = {1, 2, 3, 4}

for element in my_set:
    print(element)
# Output: 1, 2, 3, 4 (order is arbitrary)

In this example, the set named my_set is traversed, and each element is assigned to the variable element, with print(element) executed for each element.

We'll cover loops in more detail in the next lesson.