removing copies from a list

Question

For context: Users can add items to a list. I want to remove all identical submissions. Is there a more efficient way to do this:?

def removeCopies(self):
    i = 0
    while i != self.size:
        number = self.contents.count(self.contents[i])
        if number != 1:
            for j in range(1, number):
                self.delete(self.contents.index(self.contents[i], i + 1))
        i += 1

to remove duplicates and preserve order: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/480214/how-do-you-remove-duplicates-from-a-list-whilst-preserving-order — VanTan, Nov 06 '18 at 21:41

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 06 '18 at 20:56

The most efficient way I can think of to delete duplicates is

self.contents = list(set(self.contents))

This will not preserve the order of your items, but at least you won't end up with an O(n³) algorithm.

An even better solution would be to make self.contents a set to begin with, so users can not enter duplicates at all, if you have the option to do that.

removing copies from a list

1 Answers1