>>> from collections import Counter >>> d1 = Counter({'a': 10, 'b': 9, 'c': 8, 'd': 7}) >>> d2 = Counter({'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3, 'e': 2}) >>> d3 = d1 - d2 >>> print d3 Counter({'a': 9, 'b': 7, 'd': 7, 'c': 5})