Java 8 Distinct by property

Question

In Java 8 how can I filter a collection using the Stream API by checking the distinctness of a property of each object?

For example I have a list of

Answer 1

I made a generic version:

private  Collector> distinctByKey(Function keyExtractor) {
    return Collectors.collectingAndThen(
            toMap(
                    keyExtractor,
                    t -> t,
                    (t1, t2) -> t1
            ),
            (Map map) -> map.values().stream()
    );
}

An exemple:

Stream.of(new Person("Jean"), 
          new Person("Jean"),
          new Person("Paul")
)
    .filter(...)
    .collect(distinctByKey(Person::getName)) // return a stream of Person with 2 elements, jean and Paul
    .map(...)
    .collect(toList())