Find Dissimilar Elements in Tuples in Python

When it is required to find dissimilar elements in tuples, the set operator and the ^ operator can be used.

Python comes with a datatype known as set. This set contains elements that are unique only. The set is useful in performing operations such as intersection, difference, union and symmetric difference.

The ^ operator performs the symmetric difference operation on sets. It returns elements that are in either set but not in both sets.

Example

Below is a demonstration of finding dissimilar elements between two tuples ?

my_tuple_1 = ((7, 8), (3, 4), (3, 2))
my_tuple_2 = ((9, 6), (8, 2), (1, 4))

print("The first tuple is : ")
print(my_tuple_1)
print("The second tuple is : ")
print(my_tuple_2)

my_result = tuple(set(my_tuple_1) ^ set(my_tuple_2))

print("The dissimilar elements in the tuples are : ")
print(my_result)

The first tuple is : 
((7, 8), (3, 4), (3, 2))
The second tuple is : 
((9, 6), (8, 2), (1, 4))
The dissimilar elements in the tuples are : 
((3, 4), (9, 6), (1, 4), (8, 2), (3, 2), (7, 8))

How It Works

The symmetric difference operation works in three steps:

• Convert both tuples to sets using set()
• Apply the ^ operator to find elements present in either set but not in both
• Convert the result back to a tuple using tuple()

Alternative Method Using set.symmetric_difference()

You can also use the symmetric_difference() method for the same result ?

tuple_1 = ((7, 8), (3, 4), (3, 2))
tuple_2 = ((9, 6), (8, 2), (1, 4))

dissimilar = tuple(set(tuple_1).symmetric_difference(set(tuple_2)))

print("Dissimilar elements using symmetric_difference():")
print(dissimilar)

Dissimilar elements using symmetric_difference():
((3, 4), (9, 6), (1, 4), (8, 2), (3, 2), (7, 8))

Conclusion

The ^ operator provides a concise way to find dissimilar elements between tuples by converting them to sets first. Both ^ and symmetric_difference() methods produce the same result for finding unique elements.