Diff and intersection reporting between two text files

Question

Disclaimer: I am new to programming and scripting in general so please excuse the lack of technical terms

So i have two text file data sets that contain names listed:

First File | Second File
bob        | bob
mark       | mark
larry      | bruce
tom        | tom

I would like to run a script (pref python) that outputs the intersection lines in one text file and the different lines in another text file, ex:

matches.txt:

bob 
mark 
tom 

differences.txt:

bruce

How would I accomplish this with Python? Or with a Unix command line, if it's easy enough?

Answer 1

sort | uniq is good, but comm might be even better. "man comm" for more information.

From the manual page:

EXAMPLES
       comm -12 file1 file2
              Print only lines present in both file1 and file2.

       comm -3 file1 file2
              Print lines in file1 not in file2, and vice versa.

You can also use the Python set type, but comm is easier.

Answer 2

Unix shell solution-:

# duplicate lines
sort text1.txt text2.txt | uniq -d

# unique lines
sort text1.txt text2.txt | uniq -u