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c#: collections with unique elements

Is there a collection in C# that guarantees me that I will have only unique elements? I've read about HashSet, but this collection can contain duplicates. Here is my code:
public class Bean
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
var bean = obj as Bean;
if (bean == null)
{
return false;
}
return this.Name.Equals(bean.Name) && this.Id == bean.Id;
}
public override int GetHashCode()
{
return Name.GetHashCode() * this.Id.GetHashCode();
}
}
You may complain about using non-readonly properties in my GetHashCode method, but this is a way of doing (not the right one).
HashSet<Bean> set = new HashSet<Bean>();
Bean b1 = new Bean {Name = "n", Id = 1};
Bean b2 = new Bean {Name = "n", Id = 2};
set.Add(b1);
set.Add(b2);
b2.Id = 1;
var elements = set.ToList();
var elem1 = elements[0];
var elem2 = elements[1];
if (elem1.Equals(elem2))
{
Console.WriteLine("elements are equal");
}
And in this case, my set contains duplicates.
So is there a collection in C# that guarantees me that it does not contains duplicates?

So is there a collection in C# that guarantees me that it does not
contains duplicates?
There is no existing collection class in C# that does this. You could write your own, but there is no existing one.
Some extra information regarding the issue you are experiencing
If you change a HashSet entry after adding it to the HashSet, then you need to regenerate the HashSet. My below RegenerateHashSet can be used to do that.
The reason you need to regenerate is that duplicate detection only occurs at insertion time (or, in other words, it relies on you not changing an object after you insert it). Which makes sense, if you think about it. The HashSet has no way to detect that an object it contains has changed.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
namespace Test
{
public static class HashSetExtensions
{
public static HashSet<T> RegenerateHashSet<T>(this HashSet<T> original)
{
return new HashSet<T>(original, original.Comparer);
}
}
public class Bean
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
var bean = obj as Bean;
if (bean == null)
{
return false;
}
return Name.Equals(bean.Name) && Id == bean.Id;
}
public override int GetHashCode()
{
return Name.GetHashCode() * Id.GetHashCode();
}
}
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
HashSet<Bean> set = new HashSet<Bean>();
Bean b1 = new Bean { Name = "n", Id = 1 };
Bean b2 = new Bean { Name = "n", Id = 2 };
set.Add(b1);
set.Add(b2);
b2.Id = 1;
var elements = set.ToList();
var elem1 = elements[0];
var elem2 = elements[1];
if (elem1.Equals(elem2))
{
Console.WriteLine("elements are equal");
}
Console.WriteLine(set.Count);
set = set.RegenerateHashSet();
Console.WriteLine(set.Count);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Note that the above technique is not bullet-proof - if you add two objects (Object A and Object B) which are duplicates and then change Object B to be different to Object A then the HashSet will still only have one entry in it (since Object B was never added). As such, what you probably want to do is actually store your complete list in a List instead, and then use new HashSet<T>(yourList) whenever you want unique entries. The below class may assist you if you decide to go down that route.
public class RecalculatingHashSet<T>
{
private List<T> originalValues = new List<T>();
public HashSet<T> GetUnique()
{
return new HashSet<T>(originalValues);
}
public void Add(T item)
{
originalValues.Add(item);
}
}

If you don't write your own collection type and handle property changed events to re-evaluate the items, you need to re-evaluate the items at each access. This can be accomplished with LINQ deferred execution:
ICollection<Bean> items= new List<Bean>();
IEnumerable<Bean> reader = items.Distinct();
Rule: only use items to insert or remove elements, use reader for any read access.
Bean b1 = new Bean { Name = "n", Id = 1 };
Bean b2 = new Bean { Name = "n", Id = 2 };
items.Add(b1);
items.Add(b2);
b2.Id = 1;
var elements = reader.ToList();
var elem1 = elements[0];
var elem2 = elements[1]; // throws exception because there is only one element in the result list.

while updating property for 1 object its updating properties for rest of the same objects in list

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
public class Employee
{
private string name;
public string Name
{
get { return name; }
set { name = value; }
}
private int reqId;
public int ReqId
{
get { return reqId; }
set { reqId = value; }
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Dictionary<int, Employee> d1 = new Dictionary<int, Employee>();
d1.Add(1, new Employee { Name="Amol" });
List<Employee> lstEmps = new List<Employee>();
Employee emp=null;
for(int i=0;i<2;i++)
{
emp = null;
emp = d1[1];
emp.ReqId = i;
lstEmps.Add(emp);
}
}
}
}
So while updating ReqId its getting updated for all objects present in the list.In the last iteration it is assigning same value to all the objects in list.Is it happening because of getting it from dictionary or any reference issue.
I want to give unique id to ReqId.

This is because you created a single object, and kept adding it to your list in a loop.
Your dictionary d1 contains only one object - the object added here:
d1.Add(1, new Employee { Name="Amol" });
Pulling it twice and assigning to emp does not make a copy of it - you add the same object to lstEmp.
In order to fix this problem you need to make a copy of Employee object, rather than reusing it:
for(int i=0;i<2;i++) {
lstEmps.Add(new Employee {
Name = d1[1]
, ReqId = i
});
}

Yes this is due to reference issue. Class is a reference type. Also you are not creating objects of the class employee. You are referring to the same dictionary item again and again.
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
Dictionary<int, Employee> d1 = new Dictionary<int, Employee>();
d1.Add(1, new Employee { Name = "Amol" });
List<Employee> lstEmps = new List<Employee>();
Employee emp = null;
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
emp = new Employee();
emp.Name = d1[1].Name;
emp.ReqId = i;
lstEmps.Add(emp);
}
}

Create deep copy of List<object> [duplicate]

I'm trying to make a deep copy of a generic list, and am wondering if there is any other way then creating the copying method and actually copying over each member one at a time. I have a class that looks somewhat like this:
public class Data
{
private string comment;
public string Comment
{
get { return comment; }
set { comment = value; }
}
private List<double> traceData;
public List<double> TraceData
{
get { return traceData; }
set { traceData = value; }
}
}
And I have a list of the above data, i.e List<Data>. What I'm trying to do is plot a trace data of the subset of List onto a graph, possibly with some scaling or sweeping on the data. I obviously don't need to plot everything in the list because they don't fit into the screen.
I initially tried getting the subset of the list using the List.GetRange() method, but it seems that the underneath List<double> is being shallow copied instead of deep copied. When I get the subset again using List.GetRange(), I get previously modified data, not the raw data retrieved elsewhere.
Can anyone give me a direction on how to approach this? Thanks a lot.

The idiomatic way to approach this in C# is to implement ICloneable on your Data, and write a Clone method that does the deep copy (and then presumably a Enumerable.CloneRange method that can clone part of your list at once.) There isn't any built-in trick or framework method to make it easier than that.
Unless memory and performance are a real concern, I suggest that you try hard to redesign it to operate on immutable Data objects, though, instead. It'll wind up much simpler.

You can try this
public static object DeepCopy(object obj)
{
if (obj == null)
return null;
Type type = obj.GetType();
if (type.IsValueType || type == typeof(string))
{
return obj;
}
else if (type.IsArray)
{
Type elementType = Type.GetType(
type.FullName.Replace("[]", string.Empty));
var array = obj as Array;
Array copied = Array.CreateInstance(elementType, array.Length);
for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
{
copied.SetValue(DeepCopy(array.GetValue(i)), i);
}
return Convert.ChangeType(copied, obj.GetType());
}
else if (type.IsClass)
{
object toret = Activator.CreateInstance(obj.GetType());
FieldInfo[] fields = type.GetFields(BindingFlags.Public |
BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
foreach (FieldInfo field in fields)
{
object fieldValue = field.GetValue(obj);
if (fieldValue == null)
continue;
field.SetValue(toret, DeepCopy(fieldValue));
}
return toret;
}
else
throw new ArgumentException("Unknown type");
}
Thanks to DetoX83 article on code project.

If IClonable way is too tricky for you. I suggest converting to something and back. It can be done with BinaryFormatter or a Json Converter like Servicestack.Text since it is the fastest one in .Net.
Code should be something like this:
MyClass mc = new MyClass();
string json = mc.ToJson();
MyClass mcCloned = json.FromJson<MyClass>();
mcCloned will not reference mc.

The most easiest (but dirty) way is to implement ICloneable by your class and use next extension method:
public static IEnumerable<T> Clone<T>(this IEnumerable<T> collection) where T : ICloneable
{
return collection.Select(item => (T)item.Clone());
}
Usage:
var list = new List<Data> { new Data { Comment = "comment", TraceData = new List { 1, 2, 3 } };
var newList = list.Clone();

another thing you can do is mark your class as serializable and use binary serialization.
Here is a working example
public class Program
{
[Serializable]
public class Test
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public Test()
{
}
}
public static void Main()
{
//create a list of 10 Test objects with Id's 0-10
List<Test> firstList = Enumerable.Range(0,10).Select( x => new Test { Id = x } ).ToList();
using (var stream = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
{
var binaryFormatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
binaryFormatter.Serialize(stream, firstList); //serialize to stream
stream.Position = 0;
//deserialize from stream.
List<Test> secondList = binaryFormatter.Deserialize(stream) as List<Test>;
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}

If you make your objects immutable you don't need to worry about passing around copies of them, then you could do something like:
var toPlot = list.Where(d => d.ShouldBePlotted());

Since your collection is mutable, you need to implement the deep copy programmatically:
public class Data
{
public string Comment { get; set; }
public List<double> TraceData { get; set; }
public Data DeepCopy()
{
return new Data
{
Comment = this.Comment,
TraceData = this.TraceData != null
? new List<double>(this.TraceData)
: null;
}
}
}
The Comment field can be shallow copied because its already an immutable class. You need to create a new list for TraceData, but the elements themselves are immutable and require no special handling to copy them.
When I get the subset again using
List.GetRange(), I get previously
modified data, not the raw data
retrieved elsewhere.
Use your new DeepCopy method as such:
var pointsInRange = dataPoints
.Select(x => x.DeepCopy())
.GetRange(start, length);

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace DeepListCopy_testingSome
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<int> list1 = new List<int>();
List<int> list2 = new List<int>();
//populate list1
for (int i = 0; i < 20; i++)
{
list1.Add(1);
}
///////
Console.WriteLine("\n int in each list1 element is:\n");
///////
foreach (int i in list1)
{
Console.WriteLine(" list1 elements: {0}", i);
list2.Add(1);
}
///////
Console.WriteLine("\n int in each list2 element is:\n");
///////
foreach (int i in list2)
{
Console.WriteLine(" list2 elements: {0}", i);
}
///////enter code here
for (int i = 0; i < list2.Count; i++)
{
list2[i] = 2;
}
///////
Console.WriteLine("\n Printing list1 and list2 respectively to show\n"
+ " there is two independent lists,i e, two differens"
+ "\n memory locations after modifying list2\n\n");
foreach (int i in list1)
{
Console.WriteLine(" Printing list1 elements: {0}", i);
}
///////
Console.WriteLine("\n\n");
///////
foreach (int i in list2)
{
Console.WriteLine(" Printing list2 elements: {0}", i);
}
Console.ReadKey();
}//end of Static void Main
}//end of class
}

One quick and generic way to deeply serialize an object is to use JSON.net. The following extension method allows serializing of a list of any arbitrary objects, but is able to skip Entity Framework navigation properties, since these may lead to circular dependencies and unwanted data fetches.
Method
public static List<T> DeepClone<T>(this IList<T> list, bool ignoreVirtualProps = false)
{
JsonSerializerSettings settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
if (ignoreVirtualProps)
{
settings.ContractResolver = new IgnoreNavigationPropsResolver();
settings.PreserveReferencesHandling = PreserveReferencesHandling.None;
settings.ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
settings.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
}
var serialized = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list, settings);
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<T>>(serialized);
}
Usage
var clonedList = list.DeepClone();
By default, JSON.NET serializes only public properties. If private properties must be also cloned, this solution can be used.
This method allows for quick (de)serialization of complex hierarchies of objects.

Element Metrics with Custom collection in C#

I am trying to figure out the best way to organise a bunch of my data classes, given I need to be able to access some metrics on them all at some point.
Here's a snippet of my OR class:
public enum status { CLOSED, OPEN }
public class OR
{
public string reference { get; set; }
public string title { get; set; }
public status status { get; set; }
}
Not every OR I initialise will have values for all properties. I want to be able to 'collect' thousands of these together in such a way that I can easily obtain a count of how many OR objects had a value set. For example:
OR a = new OR() { reference = "a" }
OR b = new OR() { reference = "b", title = "test" }
OR c = new OR() { reference = "c", title = "test", status = status.CLOSED }
Now these are somehow collected in such a way I can do (pseudo):
int titleCount = ORCollection.titleCount;
titleCount = 2
I would also want to be able gather metrics for the enum type properties, for example retrieve a Dictionary from the collection that looks like:
Dictionary<string, int> statusCounts = { "CLOSED", 1 }
The reason for wanting access to these metrics is that I am building two collections of ORs and comparing them side-by-side for any differences (they should be identical). I want to be able to compare their metrics at this higher level first, then break-down where precisely they differ.
Thanks for any light that can be shed on how to accomplish this. :-)

... to 'collect' thousands of these
Thousands is not a huge number. Just use a List<OR> and you can get all your metrics with Linq queries.
For example:
List<OR> orList = ...;
int titleCount = orList
.Where(o => ! string.IsNullOrEmpty(o.title))
.Count();
Dictionary<status, int> statusCounts = orList
.GroupBy(o => o.status)
.ToDictionary(g => g.Key, g => g.Count());

The existing answers using Linq are absolutely great and really elegant, so the idea presented below is just for posterity.
Here is a (very rough) reflection-based program that will alow you to count the "valid" properties in any collection of objects.
The validators are defined by you in the Validators dictionary so that you can easily change what is a valid/invalid value for each property. You may find it useful as a concept if you end up with objects having tons of properties and don't want to have to write inline linq metrics on the actual collection itself for every single property.
You could weaponise this as a function and then run it against both collections, giving you a basis to report on the exact differences between both since it records the references to the individual objects in the final dictionary.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Reflection;
namespace reftest1
{
public enum status { CLOSED, OPEN }
public class OR
{
public string reference { get; set; }
public string title { get; set; }
public status status { get; set; }
public int foo { get; set; }
}
//creates a dictionary by property of objects whereby that property is a valid value
class Program
{
//create dictionary containing what constitues an invalid value here
static Dictionary<string,Func<object,bool>> Validators = new Dictionary<string, Func<object,bool>>
{
{"reference",
(r)=> { if (r ==null) return false;
return !String.IsNullOrEmpty(r.ToString());}
},
{"title",
(t)=> { if (t ==null) return false;
return !String.IsNullOrEmpty(t.ToString());}
},
{"status", (s) =>
{
if (s == null) return false;
return !String.IsNullOrEmpty(s.ToString());
}},
{"foo",
(f) =>{if (f == null) return false;
return !(Convert.ToInt32(f.ToString()) == 0);}
}
};
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var collection = new List<OR>();
collection.Add(new OR() {reference = "a",foo=1,});
collection.Add(new OR(){reference = "b", title = "test"});
collection.Add(new OR(){reference = "c", title = "test", status = status.CLOSED});
Type T = typeof (OR);
var PropertyMetrics = new Dictionary<string, List<OR>>();
foreach (var pi in GetProperties(T))
{
PropertyMetrics.Add(pi.Name,new List<OR>());
foreach (var item in collection)
{
//execute validator if defined
if (Validators.ContainsKey(pi.Name))
{
//get actual property value and compare to valid value
var value = pi.GetValue(item, null);
//if the value is valid, record the object into the dictionary
if (Validators[pi.Name](value))
{
var lookup = PropertyMetrics[pi.Name];
lookup.Add(item);
}
}//end trygetvalue
}
}//end foreach pi
foreach (var metric in PropertyMetrics)
{
Console.WriteLine("Property '{0}' is set in {1} objects in collection",metric.Key,metric.Value.Count);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static List<PropertyInfo> GetProperties(Type T)
{
return T.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance).ToList();
}
}
}

You can get the title count using this linq query:
int titleCount = ORCollection
.Where(x => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(x.title))
.Count();
You could get the count of closed like this:
int closedCount = ORCollection
.Where(x => x.status == status.CLOSED)
.Count();
If you were going to have larger collections or you access the values a lot it might be worth creating a custom collection implementation that stores the field counts, it could then increment/decrement these values as you add and remove items. You could also store a dictionary of status counts in this custom collection that gets updated as you add and remove items.

searching an arraylist

I have a arraylist in my web application project in asp.net/C#/VS2008 and I'm using .net 3.5
I'm adding contents to the arraylist using a class which is defined as follows:
using System.Web;
class ShoppingCartDataStore
{
private string componentName;
private string componentPrice;
private string componentFileSize;
private string componentDescription;
public ShoppingCartDataStore(string componentName, string componentPrice, string componentFileSize, string componentDescription){
this.componentName = componentName;
this.componentPrice = componentPrice;
this.componentFileSize = componentFileSize;
this.componentDescription = componentDescription;
}
public string ComponentName
{
get
{
return this.componentName;
}
}
public string ComponentPrice
{
get
{
return this.componentPrice;
}
}
public string ComponentFileSize
{
get
{
return this.componentFileSize;
}
}
public string ComponentDescription
{
get
{
return this.componentDescription;
}
}
}
and I'm adding contents to the arraylist by following code:
ArrayList selectedRowItems = new ArrayList();
selectedRowItems.Add(new ShoppingCartDataStore(componentName, componentPrice, fileSize, componentDescription));
Suppose I want to search this arraylist after adding few values in this manner with componentName as the key. I tried the following code but I'm just not able to find a way to do this:
ArrayList temporarySelectedItemsList = new ArrayList();
ArrayList presentValue = new ArrayList();
string key = componentName; //some specific component name
temporarySelectedItemsList = selectedRowItems;
for (int i = 0; i < temporarySelectedItemsList.Count; i++)
{
presentValue = (ArrayList)temporarySelectedItemsList[i];
}

var results = selectedRowItems.OfType<ShoppingCartDataStore>().Where(x=>x.ComponentName == "foo")
of course you could get rid of the OfType if you were using a generic list rather than a arraylist
EDIT: So, I have no idea why you would NOT use LINQ or generics if you are in 3.5. But if you must:
ArrayList results = new ArrayList();
foreach (ShoppingCartDataStore store in selectedRowItems)
{
if(store.ComponentName == "foo"){
results.Add(store);
}
}

I'm sick and this is untested, but I think it'll work. :)
List<ShoppingCartDataStore> aList = new List<ShoppingCartDataStore>();
// add your data here
string key = componentName; //some specific component name
// Now search
foreach (ShoppingCartDataStore i in aList)
{
if (i.ComponentName == key)
{
// Found, do something
}
}