Contains method for a slice

Question

Is there anything similar to a slice.contains(object) method in Go without having to do a search through each element in a slice?

Answer 1

Instead of using a slice, map may be a better solution.

simple example:

package main

import "fmt"


func contains(slice []string, item string) bool {
    set := make(map[string]struct{}, len(slice))
    for _, s := range slice {
        set[s] = struct{}{}
    }

    _, ok := set[item] 
    return ok
}

func main() {

    s := []string{"a", "b"}
    s1 := "a"
    fmt.Println(contains(s, s1))

}

http://play.golang.org/p/CEG6cu4JTf

Answer 2

Not sure generics are needed here. You just need a contract for your desired behavior. Doing the following is no more than what you would have to do in other languages if you wanted your own objects to behave themselves in collections, by overriding Equals() and GetHashCode() for instance.

type Identifiable interface{
    GetIdentity() string
}

func IsIdentical(this Identifiable, that Identifiable) bool{
    return (&this == &that) || (this.GetIdentity() == that.GetIdentity())
}

func contains(s []Identifiable, e Identifiable) bool {
    for _, a := range s {
        if IsIdentical(a,e) {
            return true
        }
    }
    return false
}

Answer 3

func Contain(target interface{}, list interface{}) (bool, int) {
    if reflect.TypeOf(list).Kind() == reflect.Slice || reflect.TypeOf(list).Kind() == reflect.Array {
        listvalue := reflect.ValueOf(list)
        for i := 0; i < listvalue.Len(); i++ {
            if target == listvalue.Index(i).Interface() {
                return true, i
            }
        }
    }
    if reflect.TypeOf(target).Kind() == reflect.String && reflect.TypeOf(list).Kind() == reflect.String {
        return strings.Contains(list.(string), target.(string)), strings.Index(list.(string), target.(string))
    }
    return false, -1
}

Answer 4

You can use the reflect package to iterate over an interface whose concrete type is a slice:

func HasElem(s interface{}, elem interface{}) bool {
    arrV := reflect.ValueOf(s)

    if arrV.Kind() == reflect.Slice {
        for i := 0; i < arrV.Len(); i++ {

            // XXX - panics if slice element points to an unexported struct field
            // see https://golang.org/pkg/reflect/#Value.Interface
            if arrV.Index(i).Interface() == elem {
                return true
            }
        }
    }

    return false
}

https://play.golang.org/p/jL5UD7yCNq

Answer 5

Mostafa has already pointed out that such a method is trivial to write, and mkb gave you a hint to use the binary search from the sort package. But if you are going to do a lot of such contains checks, you might also consider using a map instead.

It's trivial to check if a specific map key exists by using the value, ok := yourmap[key] idiom. Since you aren't interested in the value, you might also create a map[string]struct{} for example. Using an empty struct{} here has the advantage that it doesn't require any additional space and Go's internal map type is optimized for that kind of values. Therefore, map[string] struct{} is a popular choice for sets in the Go world.

Answer 6

If the slice is sorted, there is a binary search implemented in the sort package.