On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:38:28 -0400, Peter Hansen wrote:
> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> It may shock some people to learn that difference in the sense of
>> mathematical subtraction is not the only meaning of the word, but there
>> it is. One wouldn't, I hope, misunderstand "What is the difference
>> between spaghetti marinara and spaghetti pescatora?" and attempt to
>> subtract one from the other, since subtraction is not defined for
>> foodstuffs.
>
> >>> sum(ord(c) for c in 'spaghetti marinara') - sum(ord(c) for c in
> "spaghetti pescatora")
> -119
>
> Works for me... ;-)
Yes, but if you had thought about the problem a little longer, you would
have removed the spaghetti from both, since they just cancel each other.
Although that does assume that the commutative law holds for pasta
products.
Personally, I prefer this answer:
>>> import sets
>>> sets.Set("spaghetti marinara") - sets.Set("spaghetti pescatora")
Set(['m', 'n'])
--
Steven.
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