How do I remove duplicates from a C# array?

Question

I have been working with a string[] array in C# that gets returned from a function call. I could possibly cast to a Generic collection, but I was wondering if there was a better way to do it, possibly by using a temp array.

What is the best way to remove duplicates from a C# array?

Answer 1

The following tested and working code will remove duplicates from an array. You must include the System.Collections namespace.

string[] sArray = {"a", "b", "b", "c", "c", "d", "e", "f", "f"};
var sList = new ArrayList();

for (int i = 0; i < sArray.Length; i++) {
    if (sList.Contains(sArray[i]) == false) {
        sList.Add(sArray[i]);
    }
}

var sNew = sList.ToArray();

for (int i = 0; i < sNew.Length; i++) {
    Console.Write(sNew[i]);
}

You could wrap this up into a function if you wanted to.

Answer 2

Simple solution:

using System.Linq;
...

public static int[] Distinct(int[] handles)
{
    return handles.ToList().Distinct().ToArray();
}

Answer 3

Here is a O(n*n) approach that uses O(1) space.

void removeDuplicates(char* strIn)
{
    int numDups = 0, prevIndex = 0;
    if(NULL != strIn && *strIn != '\0')
    {
        int len = strlen(strIn);
        for(int i = 0; i < len; i++)
        {
            bool foundDup = false;
            for(int j = 0; j < i; j++)
            {
                if(strIn[j] == strIn[i])
                {
                    foundDup = true;
                    numDups++;
                    break;
                }
            }

            if(foundDup == false)
            {
                strIn[prevIndex] = strIn[i];
                prevIndex++;
            }
        }

        strIn[len-numDups] = '\0';
    }
}

The hash/linq approaches above are what you would generally use in real life. However in interviews they usually want to put some constraints e.g. constant space which rules out hash or no internal api - which rules out using LINQ.

Answer 4

  private static string[] distinct(string[] inputArray)
        {
            bool alreadyExists;
            string[] outputArray = new string[] {};

            for (int i = 0; i < inputArray.Length; i++)
            {
                alreadyExists = false;
                for (int j = 0; j < outputArray.Length; j++)
                {
                    if (inputArray[i] == outputArray[j])
                        alreadyExists = true;
                }
                        if (alreadyExists==false)
                        {
                            Array.Resize<string>(ref outputArray, outputArray.Length + 1);
                            outputArray[outputArray.Length-1] = inputArray[i];
                        }
            }
            return outputArray;
        }

Answer 5

Here is the HashSet<string> approach:

public static string[] RemoveDuplicates(string[] s)
{
    HashSet<string> set = new HashSet<string>(s);
    string[] result = new string[set.Count];
    set.CopyTo(result);
    return result;
}

Unfortunately this solution also requires .NET framework 3.5 or later as HashSet was not added until that version. You could also use array.Distinct(), which is a feature of LINQ.

Answer 6

Maybe hashset which do not store duplicate elements and silently ignore requests to add duplicates.

static void Main()
{
    string textWithDuplicates = "aaabbcccggg";     

    Console.WriteLine(textWithDuplicates.Count());  
    var letters = new HashSet<char>(textWithDuplicates);
    Console.WriteLine(letters.Count());

    foreach (char c in letters) Console.Write(c);
    Console.WriteLine("");

    int[] array = new int[] { 12, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 };

    Console.WriteLine(array.Count());
    var distinctArray = new HashSet<int>(array);
    Console.WriteLine(distinctArray.Count());

    foreach (int i in distinctArray) Console.Write(i + ",");
}