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 w

Answer 1

This code 100% remove duplicate values from an array[as I used a[i]].....You can convert it in any OO language..... :)

for(int i=0;i<size;i++)
{
    for(int j=i+1;j<size;j++)
    {
        if(a[i] == a[j])
        {
            for(int k=j;k<size;k++)
            {
                 a[k]=a[k+1];
            }
            j--;
            size--;
        }
    }

}

Answer 2

Find answer below.

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var nums = new int[] { 1, 4, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9 };
        var result = removeDuplicates(nums);
        foreach (var item in result)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(item);
        }
    }
    static int[] removeDuplicates(int[] nums)
    {
        nums = nums.ToList().OrderBy(c => c).ToArray();
        int j = 1;
        int i = 0;
        int stop = 0;
        while (j < nums.Length)
        {
            if (nums[i] != nums[j])
            {
                nums[i + 1] = nums[j];
                stop = i + 2;
                i++;
            }
            j++;
        }
        nums = nums.Take(stop).ToArray();
        return nums;
    }
}

Just a bit of contribution based on a test i just solved, maybe helpful and open to improvement by other top contributors here. Here are the things i did:

1. I used OrderBy which allows me order or sort the items from smallest to the highest using LINQ
2. I then convert it to back to an array and then re-assign it back to the primary datasource
3. So i then initialize j which is my right hand side of the array to be 1 and i which is my left hand side of the array to be 0, i also initialize where i would i to stop to be 0.
4. I used a while loop to increment through the array by going from one position to the other left to right, for each increment the stop position is the current value of i + 2 which i will use later to truncate the duplicates from the array.
5. I then increment by moving from left to right from the if statement and from right to right outside of the if statement until i iterate through the entire values of the array.
6. I then pick from the first element to the stop position which becomes the last i index plus 2. that way i am able to remove all the duplicate items from the int array. which is then reassigned.

Answer 3

The following piece of code attempts to remove duplicates from an ArrayList though this is not an optimal solution. I was asked this question during an interview to remove duplicates through recursion, and without using a second/temp arraylist:

private void RemoveDuplicate() 
{

ArrayList dataArray = new ArrayList(5);

            dataArray.Add("1");
            dataArray.Add("1");
            dataArray.Add("6");
            dataArray.Add("6");
            dataArray.Add("6");
            dataArray.Add("3");
            dataArray.Add("6");
            dataArray.Add("4");
            dataArray.Add("5");
            dataArray.Add("4");
            dataArray.Add("1");

            dataArray.Sort();

            GetDistinctArrayList(dataArray, 0);
}

private void GetDistinctArrayList(ArrayList arr, int idx)

{

            int count = 0;

            if (idx >= arr.Count) return;

            string val = arr[idx].ToString();
            foreach (String s in arr)
            {
                if (s.Equals(arr[idx]))
                {
                    count++;
                }
            }

            if (count > 1)
            {
                arr.Remove(val);
                GetDistinctArrayList(arr, idx);
            }
            else
            {
                idx += 1;
                GetDistinctArrayList(arr, idx);
            }
        }

Answer 4

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;


namespace Rextester
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             List<int> listofint1 = new List<int> { 4, 8, 4, 1, 1, 4, 8 };
           List<int> updatedlist= removeduplicate(listofint1);
            foreach(int num in updatedlist)
               Console.WriteLine(num);
        }


        public static List<int> removeduplicate(List<int> listofint)
         {
             List<int> listofintwithoutduplicate= new List<int>();


              foreach(var num in listofint)
                 {
                  if(!listofintwithoutduplicate.Any(p=>p==num))
                        {
                          listofintwithoutduplicate.Add(num);
                        }
                  }
             return listofintwithoutduplicate;
         }
    }



}

Answer 5

int size = a.Length;
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
        {
            for (int j = i + 1; j < size; j++)
            {
                if (a[i] == a[j])
                {
                    for (int k = j; k < size; k++)
                    {
                        if (k != size - 1)
                        {
                            int temp = a[k];
                            a[k] = a[k + 1];
                            a[k + 1] = temp;

                        }
                    }
                    j--;
                    size--;
                }
            }
        }

Answer 6

List<String> myStringList = new List<string>();
foreach (string s in myStringArray)
{
    if (!myStringList.Contains(s))
    {
        myStringList.Add(s);
    }
}

This is O(n^2), which won't matter for a short list which is going to be stuffed into a combo, but could be rapidly be a problem on a big collection.