[New-bugs-announce] [issue17854] symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets

[Amit Saha]

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, 4}
>>> s.symmetric_difference(t).symmetric_difference(u)
{1, 4}

I am not sure how much of a "semantic" sense that makes, given that symmetric difference is by definition for two sets. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric_difference).

So, either the operator should be fixed to allow only two sets or the description be updated.

----------
assignee: docs at python
components: Documentation
messages: 187899
nosy: Amit.Saha, docs at python
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: symmetric difference operation applicable to more than two sets
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.3

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue17854>
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