Convert list to dictionary using linq and not worrying about duplicates

Question

I have a list of Person objects. I want to convert to a Dictionary where the key is the first and last name (concatenated) and the value is the Person object.

The issue is that I have some duplicated people, so this blows up if I use this code:

private Dictionary<string, Person> _people = new Dictionary<string, Person>();

_people = personList.ToDictionary(
    e => e.FirstandLastName,
    StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

I know it sounds weird but I don't really care about duplicates names for now. If there are multiple names I just want to grab one. Is there anyway I can write this code above so it just takes one of the names and doesn't blow up on duplicates?

Answer 1

LINQ solution:

// Use the first value in group
var _people = personList
    .GroupBy(p => p.FirstandLastName, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
    .ToDictionary(g => g.Key, g => g.First(), StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

// Use the last value in group
var _people = personList
    .GroupBy(p => p.FirstandLastName, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
    .ToDictionary(g => g.Key, g => g.Last(), StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

If you prefer a non-LINQ solution then you could do something like this:

// Use the first value in list
var _people = new Dictionary<string, Person>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
foreach (var p in personList)
{
    if (!_people.ContainsKey(p.FirstandLastName))
        _people[p.FirstandLastName] = p;
}

// Use the last value in list
var _people = new Dictionary<string, Person>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
foreach (var p in personList)
{
    _people[p.FirstandLastName] = p;
}

Answer 2

Here's the obvious, non linq solution:

foreach(var person in personList)
{
  if(!myDictionary.ContainsKey(person.FirstAndLastName))
    myDictionary.Add(person.FirstAndLastName, person);
}

If you don't mind always getting the last one added, you can avoid the double lookup like this:

foreach(var person in personList)
{
    myDictionary[person.FirstAndLastName] = person;
}

Answer 3

A Linq-solution using Distinct() and and no grouping is:

var _people = personList
    .Select(item => new { Key = item.Key, FirstAndLastName = item.FirstAndLastName })
    .Distinct()
    .ToDictionary(item => item.Key, item => item.FirstFirstAndLastName, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);

I don't know if it is nicer than LukeH's solution but it works as well.

Answer 4

This should work with lambda expression:

personList.Distinct().ToDictionary(i => i.FirstandLastName, i => i);

Answer 5

You can create an extension method similar to ToDictionary() with the difference being that it allows duplicates. Something like:

    public static Dictionary<TKey, TElement> SafeToDictionary<TSource, TKey, TElement>(
        this IEnumerable<TSource> source, 
        Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, 
        Func<TSource, TElement> elementSelector, 
        IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null)
    {
        var dictionary = new Dictionary<TKey, TElement>(comparer);

        if (source == null)
        {
            return dictionary;
        }

        foreach (TSource element in source)
        {
            dictionary[keySelector(element)] = elementSelector(element);
        }

        return dictionary; 
    }

In this case, if there are duplicates, then the last value wins.

Answer 6

You can also use the ToLookup LINQ function, which you then can use almost interchangeably with a Dictionary.

_people = personList
    .ToLookup(e => e.FirstandLastName, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
_people.ToDictionary(kl => kl.Key, kl => kl.First()); // Potentially unnecessary

This will essentially do the GroupBy in LukeH's answer, but will give the hashing that a Dictionary provides. So, you probably don't need to convert it to a Dictionary, but just use the LINQ First function whenever you need to access the value for the key.

Answer 7

To handle eliminating duplicates, implement an IEqualityComparer<Person> that can be used in the Distinct() method, and then getting your dictionary will be easy. Given:

class PersonComparer : IEqualityComparer<Person>
{
    public bool Equals(Person x, Person y)
    {
        return x.FirstAndLastName.Equals(y.FirstAndLastName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
    }

    public int GetHashCode(Person obj)
    {
        return obj.FirstAndLastName.ToUpper().GetHashCode();
    }
}

class Person
{
    public string FirstAndLastName { get; set; }
}

Get your dictionary:

List<Person> people = new List<Person>()
{
    new Person() { FirstAndLastName = "Bob Sanders" },
    new Person() { FirstAndLastName = "Bob Sanders" },
    new Person() { FirstAndLastName = "Jane Thomas" }
};

Dictionary<string, Person> dictionary =
    people.Distinct(new PersonComparer()).ToDictionary(p => p.FirstAndLastName, p => p);

Answer 8

In case we want all the Person (instead of only one Person) in the returning dictionary, we could:

var _people = personList
    .GroupBy(p => p.FirstandLastName)
    .ToDictionary(g => g.Key, g => g.Select(x=>x));

Answer 9

The issue with most of the other answers is that they use Distinct, GroupBy or ToLookup, which creates an extra Dictionary under the hood. Equally ToUpper creates extra string. This is what I did, which is an almost an exact copy of Microsoft's code except for one change:

    public static Dictionary<TKey, TSource> ToDictionaryIgnoreDup<TSource, TKey>
        (this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null) =>
        source.ToDictionaryIgnoreDup(keySelector, i => i, comparer);

    public static Dictionary<TKey, TElement> ToDictionaryIgnoreDup<TSource, TKey, TElement>
        (this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, Func<TSource, TElement> elementSelector, IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null)
    {
        if (keySelector == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(keySelector));
        if (elementSelector == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(elementSelector));
        var d = new Dictionary<TKey, TElement>(comparer ?? EqualityComparer<TKey>.Default);
        foreach (var element in source)
            d[keySelector(element)] = elementSelector(element);
        return d;
    }

Because a set on the indexer causes it to add the key, it will not throw, and will also do only one key lookup. You can also give it an IEqualityComparer, for example StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase

Answer 10

        DataTable DT = new DataTable();
        DT.Columns.Add("first", typeof(string));
        DT.Columns.Add("second", typeof(string));

        DT.Rows.Add("ss", "test1");
        DT.Rows.Add("sss", "test2");
        DT.Rows.Add("sys", "test3");
        DT.Rows.Add("ss", "test4");
        DT.Rows.Add("ss", "test5");
        DT.Rows.Add("sts", "test6");

        var dr = DT.AsEnumerable().GroupBy(S => S.Field<string>("first")).Select(S => S.First()).
            Select(S => new KeyValuePair<string, string>(S.Field<string>("first"), S.Field<string>("second"))).
           ToDictionary(S => S.Key, T => T.Value);

        foreach (var item in dr)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(item.Key + "-" + item.Value);
        }

Answer 11

Using LINQ's equivalent of foldLeft functionality

persons.Aggregate(new Dictionary<string,Person>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase),
  (acc, current) => { 
    acc[current.FirstAndLastName] = current; 
    return acc; 
  }); 

Answer 12

Starting from Carra's solution you can also write it as:

foreach(var person in personList.Where(el => !myDictionary.ContainsKey(el.FirstAndLastName)))
{
    myDictionary.Add(person.FirstAndLastName, person);
}

Answer 13

You can use DistinctBy in .NET 6 and above:

_people = personList.DistinctBy(x => x.FirstandLastName).ToDictionary(
    e => e.FirstandLastName,
    StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);