Java 8 Distinct by property

Question

In Java 8 how can I filter a collection using the Stream API by checking the distinctness of a property of each object?

For example I have a list of

Answer 1

Building on @josketres's answer, I created a generic utility method:

You could make this more Java 8-friendly by creating a Collector.

public static  Set removeDuplicates(Collection input, Comparator comparer) {
    return input.stream()
            .collect(toCollection(() -> new TreeSet<>(comparer)));
}


@Test
public void removeDuplicatesWithDuplicates() {
    ArrayList input = new ArrayList<>();
    Collections.addAll(input, new C(7), new C(42), new C(42));
    Collection result = removeDuplicates(input, (c1, c2) -> Integer.compare(c1.value, c2.value));
    assertEquals(2, result.size());
    assertTrue(result.stream().anyMatch(c -> c.value == 7));
    assertTrue(result.stream().anyMatch(c -> c.value == 42));
}

@Test
public void removeDuplicatesWithoutDuplicates() {
    ArrayList input = new ArrayList<>();
    Collections.addAll(input, new C(1), new C(2), new C(3));
    Collection result = removeDuplicates(input, (t1, t2) -> Integer.compare(t1.value, t2.value));
    assertEquals(3, result.size());
    assertTrue(result.stream().anyMatch(c -> c.value == 1));
    assertTrue(result.stream().anyMatch(c -> c.value == 2));
    assertTrue(result.stream().anyMatch(c -> c.value == 3));
}

private class C {
    public final int value;

    private C(int value) {
        this.value = value;
    }
}