Find and Deletes Duplicates in List of Tuples in C#

Question

I need to find and remove the duplicates from a List of tuples. Basically, my structure is made like that:

List<Tuple<string, string>> myList = new List<Tuple<string, string>>();

****

private void FillStructure()
{
     myList.Add(Tuple.Create<string, string>("A", "B"));
     myList.Add(Tuple.Create<string, string>("A", "C"));
     myList.Add(Tuple.Create<string, string>("C", "B"));
     myList.Add(Tuple.Create<string, string>("C", "B"));    // Duplicate
     myList.Add(Tuple.Create<string, string>("A", "D"));

     FindAndRemoveDuplicates(myList);
}

private void FindAndRemoveDuplicates(List<Tuple<string, string>> myList)
{
        // how can I perform this ?
}

I can't use a Dictionary because I can have the same key but different values! Thank you in advance

Answer 1

You can use Distinct() method of LINQ, like this:

myList = myList.Distinct().ToList(); 

Note that this would re-create the list, rather than removing the duplicates in place.

Answer 2

You can use HashSet for this purposes (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb359438.aspx)

class SameTuplesComparer<T1, T2> : EqualityComparer<Tuple<T1, T2>> 
{
   public override bool Equals(Tuple<T1, T2> t1, Tuple<T1, T2> t2)
   {
      return t1.Item1.Equals(t2.Item1) && t1.Item2.Equals(t2.Item2)
   }


   public override int GetHashCode(Tuple<T1, T2> t)
   {
     return base.GetHashCode();
   }
}

So if you write your own comparer, you can compare strings a little differently (as example, not casesensetive):

class SameStringTuplesComparer: EqualityComparer<Tuple<string, string>> 
{
   public override bool Equals(Tuple<string, string> t1, Tuple<string, string> t2)
   {
      return t1.Item1.Equals(t2.Item1, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) && t1.Item2.Equals(t2.Item2, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)
   }


   public override int GetHashCode(Tuple<string, string> t)
   {
     return base.GetHashCode();
   }
}

Then in code:

var hashSet = new HashSet<Tuple<string, string>>(list, new SameTuplesComparer());

Or without your own comparer:

var hashSet = HashSet<Tuple<string, string>>(list);

Now you can add elements to hashSet and all elements will be unique. After you done with adding elements you can convert it to list again:

var uniquedList = hashSet.ToList();

Or just use list.Distinct().ToList()