SymmetricDifference

SymmetricDifference[list1,list2,…]

gives the symmetric difference of the lists listi.

Details and Options

  • SymmetricDifference[list1,list2] gives the sorted list of elements that are in list1 or list2 but not in both.
  • SymmetricDifference[list1,list2,…] gives the sorted list of elements that appear in an odd number of the listi.
  • The listi must have the same head, but it need not be List.
  • SymmetricDifference[list1,list2,…,SameTesttest] applies test to each pair of elements in the listi to determine whether they should be considered the same.

Examples

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Basic Examples  (2)

Return the elements that are present in only one of the lists:

Return the elements that are present in an odd number of lists:

Scope  (1)

Use expressions with any common head:

Options  (1)

SameTest  (1)

By default, SymmetricDifference performs SameQ comparisons:

Compare numbers by numerical value with Equal:

Properties & Relations  (6)

SymmetricDifference[] returns {}:

SymmetricDifference[list,{}] returns list:

SymmetricDifference[l1,l2] returns the same elements as SymmetricDifference[l2,l1]:

SymmetricDifference[l1,l2] is equivalent to Union[Complement[l1,l2],Complement[l2,l1]]:

SymmetricDifference[l1,l2] is equivalent to Complement[Union[l1,l2],Intersection[l1,l2]]:

SymmetricDifference[l1,l2,…] returns the elements that appear in an odd number of lists:

UniqueElements[{l1,l2,…}] returns the elements that appear only in one of the lists:

Wolfram Research (2022), SymmetricDifference, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SymmetricDifference.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2022), SymmetricDifference, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SymmetricDifference.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2022. "SymmetricDifference." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SymmetricDifference.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2022). SymmetricDifference. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SymmetricDifference.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2023_symmetricdifference, author="Wolfram Research", title="{SymmetricDifference}", year="2022", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SymmetricDifference.html}", note=[Accessed: 17-April-2024 ]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2023_symmetricdifference, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={SymmetricDifference}, year={2022}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/SymmetricDifference.html}, note=[Accessed: 17-April-2024 ]}