What is the purpose of the discard() method?

The discard() method in Python is specifically designed to remove a specified element from a set, but it does so in a way that avoids raising an error if the element is not present in the set. This means that if the element exists in the set, it will be removed; if it does not exist, the method completes without any action or error. This feature makes discard() particularly useful when you are unsure whether the item you want to remove is currently in the set, allowing for cleaner and more robust code.

For instance, if you have a set of unique items and you want to ensure one of the items is removed without checking if it exists first, using discard() would simply handle the operation smoothly regardless of the presence of the item. This differentiates it from other methods like remove(), which will raise a KeyError if the item is not found in the set.