r"""Return a new set with elements in either the set or other but not both.

        >>> ms = Multiset('aab')
        >>> sorted(ms.symmetric_difference('abc'))
        ['a', 'c']

        You can also use the ``^`` operator for the same effect. However, the operator version
        will only accept a set as other operator, not any iterable, to avoid errors.

        >>> ms = Multiset('aab')
        >>> sorted(ms ^ Multiset('aaac'))
        ['a', 'b', 'c']

        For a variant of the operation which modifies the multiset in place see
        :meth:`symmetric_difference_update`.

        Args:
            other: The other set to take the symmetric difference with. Can also be any :class:`~typing.Iterable`\[~T]
                or :class:`~typing.Mapping`\[~T, :class:`int`] which are then converted to :class:`Multiset`\[~T].

        Returns:
            The resulting symmetric difference multiset.

def symmetric_difference(self, other):
        r"""Return a new set with elements in either the set or other but not both.

        >>> ms = Multiset('aab')
        >>> sorted(ms.symmetric_difference('abc'))
        ['a', 'c']

        You can also use the ``^`` operator for the same effect. However, the operator version
        will only accept a set as other operator, not any iterable, to avoid errors.

        >>> ms = Multiset('aab')
        >>> sorted(ms ^ Multiset('aaac'))
        ['a', 'b', 'c']

        For a variant of the operation which modifies the multiset in place see
        :meth:`symmetric_difference_update`.

        Args:
            other: The other set to take the symmetric difference with. Can also be any :class:`~typing.Iterable`\[~T]
                or :class:`~typing.Mapping`\[~T, :class:`int`] which are then converted to :class:`Multiset`\[~T].

        Returns:
            The resulting symmetric difference multiset.
        """
        other = self._as_multiset(other)
        result = self.__class__()
        _total = 0
        _elements = result._elements
        self_elements = self._elements
        other_elements = other._elements
        dist_elements = set(self_elements.keys()) | set(other_elements.keys())
        for element in dist_elements:
            multiplicity = self_elements.get(element, 0)
            other_multiplicity = other_elements.get(element, 0)
            new_multiplicity = (multiplicity - other_multiplicity
                                if multiplicity > other_multiplicity else other_multiplicity - multiplicity)
            _total += new_multiplicity
            if new_multiplicity > 0:
                _elements[element] = new_multiplicity
        result._total = _total
        return result