Removing objects from an array based on another array

Question

I have two arrays like this:

var arrayA = [\"Mike\", \"James\", \"Stacey\", \"Steve\"]
var arrayB = [\"Steve\", \"Gemma\", \"James\", \"Lucy\"]

Answer 1

The easiest way is by using the new Set container (added in Swift 1.2 / Xcode 6.3):

var setA = Set(arrayA)
var setB = Set(arrayB)

// Return a set with all values contained in both A and B
let intersection = setA.intersect(setB) 

// Return a set with all values in A which are not contained in B
let diff = setA.subtract(setB)

If you want to reassign the resulting set to arrayA, simply create a new instance using the copy constructor and assign it to arrayA:

arrayA = Array(intersection)

The downside is that you have to create 2 new data sets. Note that intersect doesn't mutate the instance it is invoked in, it just returns a new set.

There are similar methods to add, subtract, etc., you can take a look at them

Answer 2

Remove elements using indexes array:

1. Array of Strings and indexes

   let animals = ["cats", "dogs", "chimps", "moose", "squarrel", "cow"]
   let indexAnimals = [0, 3, 4]
   let arrayRemainingAnimals = animals
       .enumerated()
       .filter { !indexAnimals.contains($0.offset) }
       .map { $0.element }
   
   print(arrayRemainingAnimals)
   
   //result - ["dogs", "chimps", "cow"]
   

2. Array of Integers and indexes

   var numbers = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
   let indexesToRemove = [3, 5, 8, 12]
   
   numbers = numbers
       .enumerated()
       .filter { !indexesToRemove.contains($0.offset) }
       .map { $0.element }
   
   print(numbers)
   
   //result - [0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11]
   

Remove elements using element value of another array

3. Arrays of integers

   let arrayResult = numbers.filter { element in
       return !indexesToRemove.contains(element)
   }
   print(arrayResult)
   
   //result - [0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11]
   

4. Arrays of strings

   let arrayLetters = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i"]
   let arrayRemoveLetters = ["a", "e", "g", "h"]
   let arrayRemainingLetters = arrayLetters.filter {
       !arrayRemoveLetters.contains($0)
   }
   
   print(arrayRemainingLetters)
   
   //result - ["b", "c", "d", "f", "i"]
   

Answer 3

Like this:

var arrayA = ["Mike", "James", "Stacey", "Steve"]
var arrayB = ["Steve", "Gemma", "James", "Lucy"]
for word in arrayB {
    if let ix = find(arrayA, word) {
        arrayA.removeAtIndex(ix)
    }
}
// now arrayA is ["Mike", "Stacey"]