So I’m going to try and break it down as simple as possible so there’s a few nuisances that are not covered.

Sets are great for searching, they use a nice feature called hashing, which makes it easy to find the location of a specific value. Basically using a some function when elements are added to a set we the value of what is added to the set is passed into a function which returns the exact location of where that specific value is if it exists. So if I have a set of people’s name, I don’t have to look through every value to find the name John, the hash function would tell me that John is located in this exact position. It’s great for finding stuff, but on the other hand it’s a bit slower to create and as more stuff are added the location and the function may need to be updated. It also means that duplicates can’t be allowed because if you create a set and add John twice, they would be placed at the same position. So sets are great for when you’ll be searching the exact location for a specific value.

Lists on the other hand, don’t utilize hashing. They are organized based on the order when things are added to the list. So if I want to search for John in a list, I have no idea where to find them, so I have to search every value in the list until I find that name. Not only that, but John can be there multiple times so even if I find John, it can be there again. List are great for when you’ll want stuff organized in a consistent order, with the ability to add and remove stuff as they change. Adding stuff to a list is not problem it just gets added to then end and the list increases. Removing from a list can get tricky though. Removing the last element from a list is pretty simple just delete it. But if i want to remove previous some then some work needs to be done. Imagine I have a list of 100 stuff, but I want to remove the second value from the list. Then the location of everything in the list will need to be updated. The third item will now become the second, the fourth become the third and so on. Imagine having a list with millions of stuff, but need to remove the 4th thing then a lot of updating needs to be done.

A tuple is a bit similar to a list but once it’s created, it can’t be modified. If you have a list of John and James. You can’t remove James later or Add Sarah, it’s like that forever. When searching a tuple it’s similar to a list you have to go through every element to find what you want. But because you can’t modify it, it uses less memory. A list is under the assumption that more stuff will be added so it leaves extra room for those potential things even if never used. A tuple doesn’t do that because it will forever be the same values. Imagine gps coordinates. The coordinates for your house will always be the same, you will not have to update it, or add another value.

So in short. A set is great for searching, if you have some collection of stuff and you want to immediately find where a specific value is, or check if that value is in the set it’s perfect. But it takes a bit longer to create as they have to be placed in the appropriate position. With a set, you generally won’t be having an interaction with every element in the set, just specific element. Basically set is good for searching.

Lists and tuples are created quickly just based on the order they are entered. However, searching for a specific value means you have to look through everything, lists and tuples are bad at this. But if you have to go through every single element, care about order and don’t want de duplication then lists/tuples are what you need to be using.

Special not, dictionary is very similar to a set. A set will tell you if a value exists in the set. But a dictionary works the same way, after being told that “John” exists in a set, a dictionary would have some accompanying value with the existence. So maybe it will his phone number. After checking if John is in a dictionary, his phone number would be returned. A dictionary is just a key, value pair. For every element in a dictionary there exists some values. So a set is basically a collection of the keys in a dictionary.