Prevent duplicate items from being added to a List

Question

I have this code for adding selected items from one ListBox to another. How can I prevent the user from adding an item twice? I want the ListBox they are adding to lstBoxToUserProjects to only contain distinct items with no duplicate entries.

protected void btnAddSelectedItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    List<ListItem> itemsToAdd= new List<ListItem>();

    foreach (ListItem listItem in lstbxFromUserProjects.Items)
    {
        if (listItem.Selected)
            itemsToAdd.Add(listItem);
    }

    foreach (ListItem listItem in itemsToAdd)
    {
        lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Add(listItem);
    }
}

EDIT: Here's what I ended up using

protected void btnAddSelectedItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    List<ListItem> itemsToAdd= new List<ListItem>();

    foreach (ListItem listItem in lstbxFromUserProjects.Items)
    {
        if (listItem.Selected)
            itemsToAdd.Add(listItem);
    }

    foreach (ListItem listItem in itemsToAdd)
    {

        if (!lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Contains(listItem)) 
        {
            lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Add(listItem);
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Change itemsToAdd from List to HashSet:

HashSet<ListItem> itemsToAdd= new HashSet<ListItem>();

...
itemsToAdd.Add(listItem) // Adds only new items.

Add MSDN:

Return Value

Type: System.Boolean true if the element is added to the HashSet(Of T) object; false if the element is already present. (gdoron- and not inserting the element again...)

Answer 2

Use

_items_Unique = _items.Distinct().ToList();

method it's fast then comparing where _items_Unique and _items are two list

List<string> _items_Unique = new List<string>();
List<string> _items = new List<string>();

Answer 3

If you bind the lstBoxToUserProjects list box to a datasource (HashSet) then you could do a simple check to see if the item proposed for selection was already in the destination:

foreach(ListItem itemToAdd in itemsToAdd)
{
    if (selectedItems.Contains(itemToAdd)) continue;
    lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Add(itemToAdd);
}

Note I'm proposing a HashSet because then you can do a performant check on the set whereas a List would have to be enumerated to check for a match.

Answer 4

You should just call ListBox.Items.Contains() in an if statement to check if it has already been added.

foreach (ListItem listItem in itemsToAdd)
{
    if (!lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Contains(listItem))
    {
        lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Add(listItem);
    }
}

Answer 5

Try this:

protected void btnAddSelectedItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.AddRange(lstbxFromUserProjects.Items.Where(li => !lstBoxToUserProjects.Items.Contains(li)).ToArray());
}

This assumes C# 3.5, at least.