Sets are Iterables that contain no duplicate elements. The operations on sets are summarized in the following table for general sets and in the table after that for mutable sets. They fall into the following categories:
**Tests**: contains, apply, subsetOf. The contains method asks whether a set contains a given element. The apply method for a set is the same as contains, so set(elem) is the same as set contains elem. That means sets can also be used as test functions that return true for the elements they contain.
**Additions**: + and ++, which add one or more elements to a set, yielding a new set.
**Removals**: -, --, which remove one or more elements from a set, yielding a new set.
**Set operations**: union, intersection, and set difference. Each of these operations exists in two forms: alphabetic and symbolic. The alphabetic versions are intersect, union, and diff, whereas the symbolic versions are &, |, and &~. In fact, the ++ that Set inherits from Traversable can be seen as yet another alias of union or |, except that ++ takes a Traversable argument whereas union and | take sets.
Sets can be created easily:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
mySet.size should be(res0)
Sets contain distinct values:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Michigan")
mySet.size should be(res0)
Sets can be added to easily:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val aNewSet = mySet + "Illinois"
aNewSet.contains("Illinois") should be(res0)
mySet.contains("Illinois") should be(res1)
Sets may be of mixed type:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", 12)
mySet.contains(12) should be(res0)
mySet.contains("MI") should be(res1)
Sets can be checked for member existence:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", 12)
mySet(12) should be(res0)
mySet("MI") should be(res1)
Set elements can be removed easily:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val aNewSet = mySet - "Michigan"
aNewSet.contains("Michigan") should be(res0)
mySet.contains("Michigan") should be(res1)
Set elements can be removed in multiple:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val aNewSet = mySet -- List("Michigan", "Ohio")
aNewSet.contains("Michigan") should be(res0)
aNewSet.contains("Wisconsin") should be(res1)
aNewSet.size should be(res2)
Attempted removal of nonexistent elements from a set is handled gracefully:
val mySet = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val aNewSet = mySet - "Minnesota"
aNewSet.equals(mySet) should be(res0)
Two sets can be intersected easily:
val mySet1 = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val mySet2 = Set("Wisconsin", "Michigan", "Minnesota")
val aNewSet = mySet1 intersect mySet2 // NOTE: You can use the "&" operator
aNewSet.equals(Set("Michigan", "Wisconsin")) should be(res0)
Two sets can be joined as their union easily:
val mySet1 = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val mySet2 = Set("Wisconsin", "Michigan", "Minnesota")
val aNewSet = mySet1 union mySet2 // NOTE: You can also use the "|" operator
aNewSet.equals(Set("Michigan", "Wisconsin", "Ohio", "Iowa", "Minnesota")) should be(res0)
A set is either a subset of another set or it isn't:
val mySet1 = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val mySet2 = Set("Wisconsin", "Michigan", "Minnesota")
val mySet3 = Set("Wisconsin", "Michigan")
mySet2 subsetOf mySet1 should be(res0)
mySet3 subsetOf mySet1 should be(res1)
The difference between two sets can be obtained easily:
val mySet1 = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val mySet2 = Set("Wisconsin", "Michigan")
val aNewSet = mySet1 diff mySet2 // Note: you can use the "&~" operator if you *really* want to.
aNewSet.equals(Set("Ohio", "Iowa")) should be(res0)
Set equivalency is independent of order:
val mySet1 = Set("Michigan", "Ohio", "Wisconsin", "Iowa")
val mySet2 = Set("Wisconsin", "Michigan", "Ohio", "Iowa")
mySet1.equals(mySet2) should be(res0)
