How to Find the Difference Between Two Lists in Python
In Python, there is no method or function to find the difference between two lists. The difference between two lists a and b is the items in a but not present in b.
Create two lists a and b
For our example, we will createlists a and b having a few common items and a few different items.
a = ['apple', 'orange', 'mango', 'strawberry', 'papaya', 'banana']
b = ['durian', 'apple', 'orange', 'mango', 'papaya', 'banana']
Find the difference using set() and ^
Difference between a and b would mean a list with items present in a, but not present in b.
In this case, it a - b would be strawbeerry and b - a would be durian.
Unfortunately, there are not too many options in Python lists, but you can convert the lists to sets and perform the ^ operator between the sets.
We will create list c which contains the difference a - b and list d which contains b - a.
a - b
c = list(set(a) - set(b))
print(c)
Output:
['strawberry']
b - a
d = list(set(b) - set(a))
print(d)
Output:
['durian']
Full code
a = ['apple', 'orange', 'mango', 'strawberry', 'papaya', 'banana']
b = ['durian', 'apple', 'orange', 'mango', 'papaya', 'banana']
c = list(set(a) - set(b))
print(c)
d = list(set(b) - set(a))
print(d)
Output:
['strawberry'] ['durian']
Conclusion
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