Remove duplicates from a List<T> in C#

If you're using .Net 3+, you can use Linq.

List<T> withDupes = LoadSomeData();
List<T> noDupes = withDupes.Distinct().ToList();

Perhaps you should consider using a HashSet.

From the MSDN link:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        HashSet<int> evenNumbers = new HashSet<int>();
        HashSet<int> oddNumbers = new HashSet<int>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        {
            // Populate numbers with just even numbers.
            evenNumbers.Add(i * 2);

            // Populate oddNumbers with just odd numbers.
            oddNumbers.Add((i * 2) + 1);
        }

        Console.Write("evenNumbers contains {0} elements: ", evenNumbers.Count);
        DisplaySet(evenNumbers);

        Console.Write("oddNumbers contains {0} elements: ", oddNumbers.Count);
        DisplaySet(oddNumbers);

        // Create a new HashSet populated with even numbers.
        HashSet<int> numbers = new HashSet<int>(evenNumbers);
        Console.WriteLine("numbers UnionWith oddNumbers...");
        numbers.UnionWith(oddNumbers);

        Console.Write("numbers contains {0} elements: ", numbers.Count);
        DisplaySet(numbers);
    }

    private static void DisplaySet(HashSet<int> set)
    {
        Console.Write("{");
        foreach (int i in set)
        {
            Console.Write(" {0}", i);
        }
        Console.WriteLine(" }");
    }
}

/* This example produces output similar to the following:
 * evenNumbers contains 5 elements: { 0 2 4 6 8 }
 * oddNumbers contains 5 elements: { 1 3 5 7 9 }
 * numbers UnionWith oddNumbers...
 * numbers contains 10 elements: { 0 2 4 6 8 1 3 5 7 9 }
 */

How about:

var noDupes = list.Distinct().ToList();

In .net 3.5?

Sort it, then check two and two next to each others, as the duplicates will clump together.

Something like this:

list.Sort();
Int32 index = list.Count - 1;
while (index > 0)
{
    if (list[index] == list[index - 1])
    {
        if (index < list.Count - 1)
            (list[index], list[list.Count - 1]) = (list[list.Count - 1], list[index]);
        list.RemoveAt(list.Count - 1);
        index--;
    }
    else
        index--;
}

Notes:

• Comparison is done from back to front, to avoid having to resort list after each removal
• This example now uses C# Value Tuples to do the swapping, substitute with appropriate code if you can't use that
• The end-result is no longer sorted

As kronoz said in .Net 3.5 you can use Distinct().

In .Net 2 you could mimic it:

public IEnumerable<T> DedupCollection<T> (IEnumerable<T> input) 
{
    var passedValues = new HashSet<T>();

    // Relatively simple dupe check alg used as example
    foreach(T item in input)
        if(passedValues.Add(item)) // True if item is new
            yield return item;
}

This could be used to dedupe any collection and will return the values in the original order.

It's normally much quicker to filter a collection (as both Distinct() and this sample does) than it would be to remove items from it.

In Java (I assume C# is more or less identical):

list = new ArrayList<T>(new HashSet<T>(list))

If you really wanted to mutate the original list:

List<T> noDupes = new ArrayList<T>(new HashSet<T>(list));
list.clear();
list.addAll(noDupes);

To preserve order, simply replace HashSet with LinkedHashSet.

This takes distinct (the elements without duplicating elements) and convert it into a list again:

List<type> myNoneDuplicateValue = listValueWithDuplicate.Distinct().ToList();

If you don't care about the order you can just shove the items into a HashSet, if you do want to maintain the order you can do something like this:

var unique = new List<T>();
var hs = new HashSet<T>();
foreach (T t in list)
    if (hs.Add(t))
        unique.Add(t);

Or the Linq way:

var hs = new HashSet<T>();
list.All( x =>  hs.Add(x) );

Edit: The HashSet method is O(N) time and O(N) space while sorting and then making unique (as suggested by @lassevk and others) is O(N*lgN) time and O(1) space so it's not so clear to me (as it was at first glance) that the sorting way is inferior (my apologies for the temporary down vote...)

If you have tow classes Product and Customer and we want to remove duplicate items from their list

public class Product
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string ProductName { get; set; }
}

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string CustomerName { get; set; }

}

You must define a generic class in the form below

public class ItemEqualityComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T> where T : class
{
    private readonly PropertyInfo _propertyInfo;

    public ItemEqualityComparer(string keyItem)
    {
        _propertyInfo = typeof(T).GetProperty(keyItem, BindingFlags.GetProperty | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public);
    }

    public bool Equals(T x, T y)
    {
        var xValue = _propertyInfo?.GetValue(x, null);
        var yValue = _propertyInfo?.GetValue(y, null);
        return xValue != null && yValue != null && xValue.Equals(yValue);
    }

    public int GetHashCode(T obj)
    {
        var propertyValue = _propertyInfo.GetValue(obj, null);
        return propertyValue == null ? 0 : propertyValue.GetHashCode();
    }
}

then, You can remove duplicate items in your list.

var products = new List<Product>
            {
                new Product{ProductName = "product 1" ,Id = 1,},
                new Product{ProductName = "product 2" ,Id = 2,},
                new Product{ProductName = "product 2" ,Id = 4,},
                new Product{ProductName = "product 2" ,Id = 4,},
            };
var productList = products.Distinct(new ItemEqualityComparer<Product>(nameof(Product.Id))).ToList();

var customers = new List<Customer>
            {
                new Customer{CustomerName = "Customer 1" ,Id = 5,},
                new Customer{CustomerName = "Customer 2" ,Id = 5,},
                new Customer{CustomerName = "Customer 2" ,Id = 5,},
                new Customer{CustomerName = "Customer 2" ,Id = 5,},
            };
var customerList = customers.Distinct(new ItemEqualityComparer<Customer>(nameof(Customer.Id))).ToList();

this code remove duplicate items by Id if you want remove duplicate items by other property, you can change nameof(YourClass.DuplicateProperty) same nameof(Customer.CustomerName) then remove duplicate items by CustomerName Property.

Another way in .Net 2.0

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        List<string> alpha = new List<string>();

        for(char a = 'a'; a <= 'd'; a++)
        {
            alpha.Add(a.ToString());
            alpha.Add(a.ToString());
        }

        Console.WriteLine("Data :");
        alpha.ForEach(delegate(string t) { Console.WriteLine(t); });

        alpha.ForEach(delegate (string v)
                          {
                              if (alpha.FindAll(delegate(string t) { return t == v; }).Count > 1)
                                  alpha.Remove(v);
                          });

        Console.WriteLine("Unique Result :");
        alpha.ForEach(delegate(string t) { Console.WriteLine(t);});
        Console.ReadKey();
    }

All answers copy lists, or create a new list, or use slow functions, or are just painfully slow.

To my understanding, this is the fastest and cheapest method I know (also, backed by a very experienced programmer specialized on real-time physics optimization).

// Duplicates will be noticed after a sort O(nLogn)
list.Sort();

// Store the current and last items. Current item declaration is not really needed, and probably optimized by the compiler, but in case it's not...
int lastItem = -1;
int currItem = -1;

int size = list.Count;

// Store the index pointing to the last item we want to keep in the list
int last = size - 1;

// Travel the items from last to first O(n)
for (int i = last; i >= 0; --i)
{
    currItem = list[i];

    // If this item was the same as the previous one, we don't want it
    if (currItem == lastItem)
    {
        // Overwrite last in current place. It is a swap but we don't need the last
       list[i] = list[last];

        // Reduce the last index, we don't want that one anymore
        last--;
    }

    // A new item, we store it and continue
    else
        lastItem = currItem;
}

// We now have an unsorted list with the duplicates at the end.

// Remove the last items just once
list.RemoveRange(last + 1, size - last - 1);

// Sort again O(n logn)
list.Sort();

Final cost is:

nlogn + n + nlogn = n + 2nlogn = O(nlogn) which is pretty nice.

Note about RemoveRange: Since we cannot set the count of the list and avoid using the Remove funcions, I don't know exactly the speed of this operation but I guess it is the fastest way.

Using HashSet this can be done easily.

List<int> listWithDuplicates = new List<int> { 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
HashSet<int> hashWithoutDuplicates = new HashSet<int> ( listWithDuplicates );
List<int> listWithoutDuplicates = hashWithoutDuplicates.ToList();

Using HashSet: list = new HashSet<T>(list).ToList();

If you need to compare complex objects, you will need to pass a Comparer object inside the Distinct() method.

private void GetDistinctItemList(List<MyListItem> _listWithDuplicates)
{
    //It might be a good idea to create MyListItemComparer 
    //elsewhere and cache it for performance.
    List<MyListItem> _listWithoutDuplicates = _listWithDuplicates.Distinct(new MyListItemComparer()).ToList();
        
    //Choose the line below instead, if you have a situation where there is a chance to change the list while Distinct() is running.
    //ToArray() is used to solve "Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute" error.
    //List<MyListItem> _listWithoutDuplicates = _listWithDuplicates.ToArray().Distinct(new MyListItemComparer()).ToList();

    return _listWithoutDuplicates;
}

Assuming you have 2 other classes like:

public class MyListItemComparer : IEqualityComparer<MyListItem>
{
    public bool Equals(MyListItem x, MyListItem y)
    {
        return x != null 
               && y != null 
               && x.A == y.A 
               && x.B.Equals(y.B); 
               && x.C.ToString().Equals(y.C.ToString());
    }

    public int GetHashCode(MyListItem codeh)
    {
        return codeh.GetHashCode();
    }
}

And:

public class MyListItem
{
    public int A { get; }
    public string B { get; }
    public MyEnum C { get; }

    public MyListItem(int a, string b, MyEnum c)
    {
        A = a;
        B = b;
        C = c;
    }
}

I think the simplest way is:

Create a new list and add unique item.

Example:

        class MyList{
    int id;
    string date;
    string email;
    }
    
    List<MyList> ml = new Mylist();

ml.Add(new MyList(){
id = 1;
date = "2020/09/06";
email = "zarezadeh@gmailcom"
});

ml.Add(new MyList(){
id = 2;
date = "2020/09/01";
email = "zarezadeh@gmailcom"
});

 List<MyList> New_ml = new Mylist();

foreach (var item in ml)
                {
                    if (New_ml.Where(w => w.email == item.email).SingleOrDefault() == null)
                    {
                        New_ml.Add(new MyList()
                        {
                          id = item.id,
     date = item.date,
               email = item.email
                        });
                    }
                }

As per remove duplicate, We have to apply below logic so It will remove duplicate in fast ways.

public class Program
{

    public static void Main(string[] arges)
    {
        List<string> cities = new List<string>() { "Chennai", "Kolkata", "Mumbai", "Mumbai","Chennai", "Delhi", "Delhi", "Delhi", "Chennai", "Kolkata", "Mumbai", "Chennai" };
        cities = RemoveDuplicate(cities);

        foreach (var city in cities)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(city);
        }
    }

    public static List<string> RemoveDuplicate(List<string> cities)
    {
        if (cities.Count < 2)
        {
            return cities;
        }

        int size = cities.Count;
        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++)
        {
            for (int j = i+1; j < size; j++)
            {
                if (cities[i] == cities[j])
                {
                    cities.RemoveAt(j);
                    size--;
                    j--;
                }
            }
        }
        return cities;
    }
}

I have my own way. I am 2 looping same list for compare list items. And then remove second one.

            for(int i1 = 0; i1 < lastValues.Count; i1++)
            {
                for(int i2 = 0; i2 < lastValues.Count; i2++)
                {
                    if(lastValues[i1].UserId == lastValues[i2].UserId)
                    {
                        lastValues.RemoveAt(i2);
                    }
                }
            }