NSMutableArray check if object already exists

Question

I am not sure how to go about this. I have an NSMutableArray (addList) which holds all the items to be added to my datasource NSMutableArray.

I now

Answer 1

There is a very useful method for this in NSArray i.e. containsObject.

NSArray *array;
array = [NSArray arrayWithObjects: @"Nicola", @"Margherita",                                       @"Luciano", @"Silvia", nil];
if ([array containsObject: @"Nicola"]) // YES
{
    // Do something
}

Answer 2

I found a solution, may not be the most efficient of all, but atleast works

NSMutableArray *add=[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];

for (Item *item in addList){
        if ([appDelegate.list containsObject:item])
            {}
        else
            [add addObject:item];
}

Then I iterate over the add array and insert items.

Answer 3

Have a look at NSSet. You can add objects and the object will only be added if the object is unique. You can create a NSSet from an NSArray or vise versa.