How can I compare two lists in python and return matches

Question

I want to take two lists and find the values that appear in both.

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
b = [9, 8, 7, 6, 5]

returnMatches(a, b)

would return

Answer 1

>>> s = ['a','b','c']   
>>> f = ['a','b','d','c']  
>>> ss= set(s)  
>>> fs =set(f)  
>>> print ss.intersection(fs)   
   **set(['a', 'c', 'b'])**  
>>> print ss.union(fs)        
   **set(['a', 'c', 'b', 'd'])**  
>>> print ss.union(fs)  - ss.intersection(fs)   
   **set(['d'])**