On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 2:46 PM, TommyVee <xxxxx...@xxxxxx.xxx> wrote: > Start off with sets of elements as follows: > > 1. A,B,E,F > 2. G,H,L,P,Q > 3. C,D,E,F > 4. E,X,Z > 5. L,M,R > 6. O,M,Y > > Note that sets 1, 3 and 4 all have the element 'E' in common, therefore they > are "related" and form the following superset: > > A,B,C,D,E,F,X,Z > > Likewise, sets 2 and 5 have the element 'L' in common, then set 5 and 6 have > element 'M' in common, therefore they form the following superset: > > G,H,L,M,O,P,Q,R,Y > > I think you get the point. As long as sets have at least 1 common element, > they combine to form a superset. Also "links" (common elements) between > sets may go down multiple levels, as described in the second case above > (2->5->6). Cycles thankfully, are not possible. > > BTW, the number of individual sets (and resultant supersets) will be very > large. > > I don't know where to start with this. I thought about some type of > recursive algorithm, but I'm not sure. I could figure out the Python > implementation easy enough, I'm just stumped on the algorithm itself. > > Anybody have an idea? >
start with reading about python sets. If you take the intersection of two sets it will return a set with common elements. If that is empty, they don't pass your test. If you take the union, you get a set with the set values in each. > Thanks, Tom > -- > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- Joel Goldstick http://joelgoldstick.com -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
