Algorithm - How to delete duplicate elements in a list efficiently?

Question

There is a list L. It contains elements of arbitrary type each. How to delete all duplicate elements in such list efficiently? ORDE

Answer 1

I've written an algorithm for string. Actually it does not matter what type do you have.

static string removeDuplicates(string str)
{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(str) || str.Length < 2) {
        return str;
    }

    char[] arr = str.ToCharArray();
    int len = arr.Length;
    int pos = 1;

    for (int i = 1; i < len; ++i) {

        int j;

        for (j = 0; j < pos; ++j) {
            if (arr[i] == arr[j]) {
                break;
            }
        }

        if (j == pos) {
            arr[pos] = arr[i];
            ++pos;
        }
    }

    string finalStr = String.Empty;
    foreach (char c in arr.Take(pos)) {
        finalStr += c.ToString();
    }

    return finalStr;
}