How to turn an NSArray of strings into an array of unique strings, in the same order?

Question

If you have an NSArray of strings

{ @"ONE", @"ONE", @"ONE", "TWO", @"THREE", @"THREE" }

How would I turn that into

{ @"ONE", @"TWO", @"THREE" }

..where the array follows the same order as the original. I think that you can turn an array into an NSSet to get unique items, but if you turn it back into an array you are not guaranteed to get the same order..

Answer 1

My initial thought was that you could do:

NSArray * a = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"ONE", @"ONE", @"ONE", @"TWO", @"THREE", @"THREE", nil];
NSLog(@"%@", [a valueForKeyPath:@"@distinctUnionOfObjects.self"]);

But that does not maintain order. Therefore, you have to do it manually:

NSArray * a = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:@"ONE", @"ONE", @"ONE", @"TWO", @"THREE", @"THREE", nil];
NSMutableArray * unique = [NSMutableArray array];
NSMutableSet * processed = [NSMutableSet set];
for (NSString * string in a) {
  if ([processed containsObject:string] == NO) {
    [unique addObject:string];
    [processed addObject:string];
  }
}

I use an NSMutableSet for determining if I've already come across this entry before (as opposed to [unique containsObject:string], since a set will have O(1) lookup time, and an array has O(n) lookup time. If you're only dealing with a small number of objects, then this won't matter. However, if the source array is very large, then using the set to determine uniqueness may add a bit of a speed boost. (however, you should use Instruments to profile your code and see if it's necessary)

Answer 2

You could do like this:

NSArray * uniqueArray = [[NSOrderedSet orderedSetWithArray:duplicatesArray] array];

This way, you also preserve the order!

Answer 3

I Think You can Do this With that

NSArray * uniqueArray = [[Yourarray valueForKeyPath:@"@distinctUnionOfObjects.self"] sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(caseInsensitiveCompare:)];

i hope this would help you

Answer 4

Hmm.. you could just use a loop ?

NSMutableArray *newarray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSString *laststring = nil;
for (NSString *currentstring in oldarray) 
{
   if (![currentstring isEqualtoString:laststring]) [newarray addObject:currentstring];
   laststring = currentstring
}

Answer 5

Here's a nice category that defines a custom operator like @distinctUnionOfObjects, except it only works on strings and it will maintain their original order. Note: It does not sort the strings for you. It leaves intact only the first instance of whatever strings are repeated.

Usage:

#import "NSArray+orderedDistinctUnionOfStrings.h"
...
// if you feed it an array that has already been ordered, it will work as expected
NSArray *myArray = @[@"ONE", @"ONE", @"ONE", @"TWO", @"THREE", @"THREE"];
NSArray *myUniqueArray = [myArray valueForKeyPath:@"@orderedDistinctUnionOfStrings.self"];

Output:

myUniqueArray = ( "ONE", "TWO", "THREE" )

.h file:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface NSArray (orderedDistinctUnionOfStrings)

@end

.m file:

#import "NSArray+orderedDistinctUnionOfObjects.h"

@implementation NSArray (orderedDistinctUnionOfObjects)

- (id) _orderedDistinctUnionOfStringsForKeyPath:(NSString*)keyPath {
    NSMutableIndexSet *removeIndexes = [NSMutableIndexSet indexSet];

    for (NSUInteger i = 0, n = self.count; i < n; ++i) {
        if ([removeIndexes containsIndex:i]) {
            continue;
        }
        NSString *str1 = [[self objectAtIndex:i] valueForKeyPath:keyPath];

        for (NSUInteger j = i+1; j < n; ++j) {
            if ([removeIndexes containsIndex:j]) {
                continue;
            }
            id obj = [self objectAtIndex:j];
            NSString *str2 = [obj valueForKeyPath:keyPath];
            if ([str1 isEqualToString:str2]) {
                [removeIndexes addIndex:j];
            }
        }
    }

    NSMutableArray *myMutableCopy = [self mutableCopy];
    [myMutableCopy removeObjectsAtIndexes:removeIndexes];

    return [[NSArray arrayWithArray:myMutableCopy] valueForKeyPath:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"@unionOfObjects.%@", keyPath]];
}

@end

And here is an excellent read on how to generate your own operators, and demystifies (by a little bit) how this works: http://bou.io/KVCCustomOperators.html