Set operations are mathematical procedures that involve combining or comparing sets, which are collections of distinct objects. The main operations include union, intersection, and difference. The union of two sets combines all unique elements from both sets, while the intersection includes only the elements that are present in both sets. The difference operation finds elements that are in one set but not in the other. These operations help in various fields, such as computer science, statistics, and logic. Understanding set operations is essential for tasks like data analysis, where you may need to compare groups or find commonalities between datasets.