C#: Remove duplicate values from dictionary?

Question

How can I create a dictionary with no duplicate values from a dictionary that may have duplicate values?

IDictionary myDict = new Dicti         


        

Answer 1

What do you want to do with the duplicates? If you don't mind which key you lose, just build another dictionary like this:

IDictionary<string, string> myDict = new Dictionary<string, string>();

myDict.Add("1", "blue");
myDict.Add("2", "blue");
myDict.Add("3", "red");
myDict.Add("4", "green");

HashSet<string> knownValues = new HashSet<string>();
Dictionary<string, string> uniqueValues = new Dictionary<string, string>();

foreach (var pair in myDict)
{
    if (knownValues.Add(pair.Value))
    {
        uniqueValues.Add(pair.Key, pair.Value);
    }
}

That assumes you're using .NET 3.5, admittedly. Let me know if you need a .NET 2.0 solution.

Here's a LINQ-based solution which I find pleasantly compact...

var uniqueValues = myDict.GroupBy(pair => pair.Value)
                         .Select(group => group.First())
                         .ToDictionary(pair => pair.Key, pair => pair.Value);

Answer 2

This is how I did it:

                dictionary.add(control, "string1");
                dictionary.add(control, "string1");
                dictionary.add(control, "string2");
              int x = 0;
        for (int i = 0; i < dictionary.Count; i++)
        {         
            if (dictionary.ElementAt(i).Value == valu)
            {
                x++;
            }
            if (x > 1)
            {
                dictionary.Remove(control);
            }
        }