Removing duplicate elements from an array in Swift

Question

I might have an array that looks like the following:

[1, 4, 2, 2, 6, 24, 15, 2, 60, 15, 6]

Or, reall

Answer 1

In Swift 5

 var array: [String] =  ["Aman", "Sumit", "Aman", "Sumit", "Mohan", "Mohan", "Amit"]

 let uniq = Array(Set(array))
 print(uniq)

Output Will be

 ["Sumit", "Mohan", "Amit", "Aman"]

Answer 2

Here's a category on SequenceType which preserves the original order of the array, but uses a Set to do the contains lookups to avoid the O(n) cost on Array's contains(_:) method.

public extension Sequence where Element: Hashable {

    /// Return the sequence with all duplicates removed.
    ///
    /// i.e. `[ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2 ].uniqued() == [ 1, 2, 3 ]`
    ///
    /// - note: Taken from stackoverflow.com/a/46354989/3141234, as 
    ///         per @Alexander's comment.
    func uniqued() -> [Element] {
        var seen = Set<Element>()
        return self.filter { seen.insert($0).inserted }
    }
}

If you aren't Hashable or Equatable, you can pass in a predicate to do the equality check:

extension Sequence {

    /// Return the sequence with all duplicates removed.
    ///
    /// Duplicate, in this case, is defined as returning `true` from `comparator`.
    ///
    /// - note: Taken from stackoverflow.com/a/46354989/3141234
    func uniqued(comparator: @escaping (Element, Element) throws -> Bool) rethrows -> [Element] {
        var buffer: [Element] = []

        for element in self {
            // If element is already in buffer, skip to the next element
            if try buffer.contains(where: { try comparator(element, $0) }) {
                continue
            }

            buffer.append(element)
        }

        return buffer
    }
}

Now, if you don't have Hashable, but are Equatable, you can use this method:

extension Sequence where Element: Equatable {

    /// Return the sequence with all duplicates removed.
    ///
    /// i.e. `[ 1, 2, 3, 1, 2 ].uniqued() == [ 1, 2, 3 ]`
    ///
    /// - note: Taken from stackoverflow.com/a/46354989/3141234
    func uniqued() -> [Element] {
        return self.uniqued(comparator: ==)
    }
}

Finally, you can add a key path version of uniqued like this:

extension Sequence {

    /// Returns the sequence with duplicate elements removed, performing the comparison usinig the property at
    /// the supplied keypath.
    ///
    /// i.e.
    ///
    /// ```
    /// [
    ///   MyStruct(value: "Hello"),
    ///   MyStruct(value: "Hello"),
    ///   MyStruct(value: "World")
    ///  ].uniqued(\.value)
    /// ```
    /// would result in
    ///
    /// ```
    /// [
    ///   MyStruct(value: "Hello"),
    ///   MyStruct(value: "World")
    /// ]
    /// ```
    ///
    /// - note: Taken from stackoverflow.com/a/46354989/3141234
    ///
    func uniqued<T: Equatable>(_ keyPath: KeyPath<Element, T>) -> [Element] {
        self.uniqued { $0[keyPath: keyPath] == $1[keyPath: keyPath] }
    }
}

You can stick both of these into your app, Swift will choose the right one depending on your sequence's Iterator.Element type.

Answer 3

I used @Jean-Philippe Pellet's answer and made an Array extension that does set-like operations on arrays, while maintaining the order of elements.

/// Extensions for performing set-like operations on lists, maintaining order
extension Array where Element: Hashable {
  func unique() -> [Element] {
    var seen: [Element:Bool] = [:]
    return self.filter({ seen.updateValue(true, forKey: $0) == nil })
  }

  func subtract(takeAway: [Element]) -> [Element] {
    let set = Set(takeAway)
    return self.filter({ !set.contains($0) })
  }

  func intersect(with: [Element]) -> [Element] {
    let set = Set(with)
    return self.filter({ set.contains($0) })
  }
}

Answer 4

Use a Set or NSOrderedSet to remove duplicates, then convert back to an Array:

let uniqueUnordered = Array(Set(array))
let uniqueOrdered = Array(NSOrderedSet(array: array))

Answer 5

For arrays where the elements are neither Hashable nor Comparable (e.g. complex objects, dictionaries or structs), this extension provides a generalized way to remove duplicates:

extension Array
{
   func filterDuplicate<T:Hashable>(_ keyValue:(Element)->T) -> [Element]
   {
      var uniqueKeys = Set<T>()
      return filter{uniqueKeys.insert(keyValue($0)).inserted}
   }

   func filterDuplicate<T>(_ keyValue:(Element)->T) -> [Element]
   { 
      return filterDuplicate{"\(keyValue($0))"}
   }
}

// example usage: (for a unique combination of attributes):

peopleArray = peopleArray.filterDuplicate{ ($0.name, $0.age, $0.sex) }

or...

peopleArray = peopleArray.filterDuplicate{ "\(($0.name, $0.age, $0.sex))" }

You don't have to bother with making values Hashable and it allows you to use different combinations of fields for uniqueness.

Note: for a more robust approach, please see the solution proposed by Coeur in the comments below.

stackoverflow.com/a/55684308/1033581

[EDIT] Swift 4 alternative

With Swift 4.2 you can use the Hasher class to build a hash much easier. The above extension could be changed to leverage this :

extension Array
{
    func filterDuplicate(_ keyValue:((AnyHashable...)->AnyHashable,Element)->AnyHashable) -> [Element]
    {
        func makeHash(_ params:AnyHashable ...) -> AnyHashable
        { 
           var hash = Hasher()
           params.forEach{ hash.combine($0) }
           return hash.finalize()
        }  
        var uniqueKeys = Set<AnyHashable>()
        return filter{uniqueKeys.insert(keyValue(makeHash,$0)).inserted}     
    }
}

The calling syntax is a little different because the closure receives an additional parameter containing a function to hash a variable number of values (which must be Hashable individually)

peopleArray = peopleArray.filterDuplicate{ $0($1.name, $1.age, $1.sex) } 

It will also work with a single uniqueness value (using $1 and ignoring $0).

peopleArray = peopleArray.filterDuplicate{ $1.name } 

Answer 6

Swift 3/ Swift 4/ Swift 5

Just one line code to omit Array duplicates without effecting order:

let filteredArr = Array(NSOrderedSet(array: yourArray))