Container which checks for the uniqueness of the content

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1057692

  •  21-08-2019
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Question

Is there any datatype /container in any language which checks for the uniqueness of the content rather than the value or index before inserting the item?

Was it helpful?

Solution

Yes, it's called a set. Most languages implement them in some form.

OTHER TIPS

Sure, one that comes to mind is Cocoa's NSSet class. The C++ STL also has a set class.

Of course, you need some way to define a unique object beyond simple pointer or reference comparison. For instance, in Cocoa, two objects are considered the same for the purpose of NSSet if they respond to isEqual: with YES and have the same hash code.

The problem with that is that the value can be ANYTHING so that's very open ended and not always pratical.

SQL with a UNIQUE field. sets in Python. Filenames on Filesystems. Depends on how you define "content".

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