How to create array of unique object list in Swift

Question

How can we create unique object list in Swift language like NSSet & NSMutableSet in Objective-C.

Answer 1

Always in such a case the critical factor is how to compare objects and what types of objects go into the Set. Using a Swift Dictionary, where the Set objects are the dictionary keys, could be a problem based on the restrictions on the key type (String, Int, Double, Bool, valueless Enumerations or hashable).

If you can define a hash function on your object type then you can use a Dictionary. If the objects are orderable, then you could define a Tree. If the objects are only comparable with == then you'll need to iterate over the set elements to detect a preexisting object.

// When T is only Equatable
class Set {
  var items = Array()

  func hasItem (that: T) {
   // No builtin Array method of hasItem... 
   //   because comparison is undefined in builtin Array   
   for this: T in items {
     if (this == that) {
       return true
     }
   }
   return false
  }

  func insert (that: T) {
    if (!hasItem (that))
      items.append (that)
  }
}

The above is an example of building a Swift Set; the example used objects that are only Equatable - which, while a common case, doesn't necessarily lead to an efficient Set implementations (O(N) search complexity - the above is an example).