[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Change by Raymond Hettinger : -- resolution: -> rejected stage: patch review -> resolved status: pending -> closed ___ Python tracker ___

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Irit Katriel added the comment: I agree that the doc is fine as it is. If there will be no objections/suggestions in the next couple of weeks I will close this issue. -- nosy: +iritkatriel status: open -> pending ___ Python tracker

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Ezio Melotti added the comment: Return a new set with elements in an odd number of the sets. This wording is not really clear to me. IMHO the documentation is fine as is. The evaluation order works as usual, and, since the symmetric difference is an associative (and commutative) operation,

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Terry J. Reedy added the comment: If you take the union/intersection/symmetric difference of n sets, the result is a set with all items that appears in one/all/an odd number of the n sets. The union and intersection methods actually accept n inputs, because the result is obvious, useful, and

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Terry J. Reedy added the comment: Sets have methods that do not have operators (such as len, isdisjoint), operators that do not have non-special methods (such as in, ), and method-operator pairs that do the same thing (such as (union, |), (symmetric_difference, ^)). For the pairs, it gives the

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

New submission from Amit Saha: The description of the symmetric difference operation implies that it cannot be applied to more than two sets (http://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#set.symmetric_difference). However, this is certainly possible: s={1,2} t={2,3} u={3,4} s^t^u {1,

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Amit Saha added the comment: On some more thought, perhaps the description should be updated. Since s^t^u is effectively (s^t)^u and hence the implementation does not violate the definition. -- ___ Python tracker rep...@bugs.python.org

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Georg Brandl added the comment: Can you suggest a change? I don't see a problem here; giving multiple operators for the other operations does not imply that they are not treated as left-associative. -- nosy: +georg.brandl ___ Python tracker

[issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

Amit Saha added the comment: I think the only change I am suggesting is the description of the ^ operator to be something like this: set ^ other ^ .. Return a new set with elements from the sets which are not present in more than one set I do understand that this is not really what the