Java - Removing duplicates in an ArrayList
- by Will
I'm working on a program that uses an ArrayList to store Strings. The program prompts the user with a menu and allows the user to choose an operation to perform. Such operations are adding Strings to the List, printing the entries etc. What I want to be able to do is create a method called removeDuplicates().This method will search the ArrayList and remove any duplicated values. I want to leave one instance of the duplicated value(s) within the list. I also want this method to return the total number of duplicates removed.
I've been trying to use nested loops to accomplish this but I've been running into trouble because when entries get deleted, the indexing of the ArrayList gets altered and things don't work as they should. I know conceptually what I need to do but I'm having trouble implementing this idea in code.
Here is some pseudo code:
start with first entry;
check each subsequent entry in the list and see if it matches the first entry;
remove each subsequent entry in the list that matches the first entry;
after all entries have been examined, move on to the second entry;
check each entry in the list and see if it matches the second entry;
remove each entry in the list that matches the second entry;
repeat for entry in the list
Here's the code I have so far:
public int removeDuplicates()
{
int duplicates = 0;
for ( int i = 0; i < strings.size(); i++ )
{
for ( int j = 0; j < strings.size(); j++ )
{
if ( i == j )
{
// i & j refer to same entry so do nothing
}
else if ( strings.get( j ).equals( strings.get( i ) ) )
{
strings.remove( j );
duplicates++;
}
}
}
return duplicates;
}
