Distinct not working with LINQ to Objects

Question

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        List books = new List 
        {
            new Book
            {
                


        

Answer 1

The Distinct() method checks reference equality for reference types. This means it is looking for literally the same object duplicated, not different objects which contain the same values.

There is an overload which takes an IEqualityComparer, so you can specify different logic for determining whether a given object equals another.

If you want Author to normally behave like a normal object (i.e. only reference equality), but for the purposes of Distinct check equality by name values, use an IEqualityComparer. If you always want Author objects to be compared based on the name values, then override GetHashCode and Equals, or implement IEquatable.

The two members on the IEqualityComparer interface are Equals and GetHashCode. Your logic for determining whether two Author objects are equal appears to be if the First and Last name strings are the same.

public class AuthorEquals : IEqualityComparer<Author>
{
    public bool Equals(Author left, Author right)
    {
        if((object)left == null && (object)right == null)
        {
            return true;
        }
        if((object)left == null || (object)right == null)
        {
            return false;
        }
        return left.FirstName == right.FirstName && left.LastName == right.LastName;
    }

    public int GetHashCode(Author author)
    {
        return (author.FirstName + author.LastName).GetHashCode();
    }
}

Answer 2

Distinct() performs the default equality comparison on objects in the enumerable. If you have not overridden Equals() and GetHashCode(), then it uses the default implementation on object, which compares references.

The simple solution is to add a correct implementation of Equals() and GetHashCode() to all classes which participate in the object graph you are comparing (ie Book and Author).

The IEqualityComparer interface is a convenience that allows you to implement Equals() and GetHashCode() in a separate class when you don't have access to the internals of the classes you need to compare, or if you are using a different method of comparison.

Answer 3

You've overriden Equals(), but make sure you also override GetHashCode()

Answer 4

You can achieve this with two ways:

1. You may to implement the IEquatable interface as shown Enumerable.Distinct Method or you can see @skalb's answer at this post

2. If your object has not unique key, You can use GroupBy method for achive distinct object list, that you must group object's all properties and after select first object.

For example like as below and working for me:

var distinctList= list.GroupBy(x => new {
                            Name= x.Name,
                            Phone= x.Phone,
                            Email= x.Email,
                            Country= x.Country
                        }, y=> y)
                       .Select(x => x.First())
                       .ToList()

MyObject class is like as below:

public class MyClass{
       public string Name{get;set;}
       public string Phone{get;set;}
       public string Email{get;set;}
       public string Country{get;set;}
}

3. If your object's has unique key, you can only use the it in group by.

For example my object's unique key is Id.

var distinctList= list.GroupBy(x =>x.Id)
                      .Select(x => x.First())
                      .ToList()

Answer 5

There is one more way to get distinct values from list of user defined data type:

YourList.GroupBy(i => i.Id).Select(i => i.FirstOrDefault()).ToList();

Surely, it will give distinct set of data

Answer 6

LINQ Distinct is not that smart when it comes to custom objects.

All it does is look at your list and see that it has two different objects (it doesn't care that they have the same values for the member fields).

One workaround is to implement the IEquatable interface as shown here.

If you modify your Author class like so it should work.

public class Author : IEquatable<Author>
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public bool Equals(Author other)
    {
        if (FirstName == other.FirstName && LastName == other.LastName)
            return true;

        return false;
    }

    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        int hashFirstName = FirstName == null ? 0 : FirstName.GetHashCode();
        int hashLastName = LastName == null ? 0 : LastName.GetHashCode();

        return hashFirstName ^ hashLastName;
    }
}

Try it as DotNetFiddle