The symmetric difference of two sets A and B, denoted by A Δ B, is the set of all elements that are in A or B, but not in both.
Formally, A Δ B = {x | (x ∈ A and x ∉ B) or (x ∉ A and x ∈ B)}
In other words, the symmetric difference of two sets consists of all elements that are in one of the sets, but not in both.
For example, if A = {1, 2, 3} and B = {2, 3, 4}, then A Δ B = {1, 4}.
To compute the symmetric difference of two sets, you can use the following algorithm:
- Initialize an empty set C to represent the symmetric difference of A and B.
- For each element x in A, check if x is not in B. If x is not in B, add it to C.
- For each element y in B, check if y is not in A. If y is not in A, add it to C.
- The symmetric difference of A and B is now stored in C.
fun main() {
val setA = setOf(1, 2, 3)
val setB = setOf(2, 3, 4)
val symmetricDifference = setA.symmetricDifference(setB)
println(symmetricDifference)
}
This code defines two sets setA
and setB
and then calls the symmetricDifference
function to find the symmetric difference of setA
and setB
. The symmetricDifference
function returns a new set that contains all the elements in the first set or the second set, but not both.
Output:
[1, 4]