Re: How to select unique elements in a list?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg7992] Re: How to select unique elements in a list?
- From: Paul Abbott <paul at physics.uwa.edu.au>
- Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 23:57:44 -0400
- Organization: University of Western Australia
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
C. Woll wrote:
> First, let me say that Union does not do what I'm looking for! I am
> interested in a function which returns the unique elements from a list.
> Let's call the function Distinct. Then, I want
>
> Distinct[{i1,i2,i3,i2}]
>
> to return
>
> {i1,i3}
>
> Of course, I can write a function to do this, but I am hoping someone can
> do a better job them my feeble attempt. So, my best functional solution so
> far is,
>
> RemoveDuplicates[a___,i_,i_,b___]:=RemoveDuplicates[a,b]
> Distinct[a_List]:=List@@RemoveDuplicates@@Sort[a]
>
> However, this solution is very slow. For example, with
>
> test=Table[i[Random[Integer,1000]],{1000}];
>
> it takes approximately 27 seconds to evaluate Distinct[test] on an SGI
> system. This is slow when compared to .01 seconds to evaluate Union[test]!
>
> It's likely that the way to go is to use a procedural method instead of a
> functional method.
>
> At any rate, can anyone come up with a solution which is competitive in
> speed with Union?
Here is a solution using Split:
In[1]:= Distinct[a_List] := Select[Split[Sort[a]], Length[#] == 1 & ]
Check that it works:
In[2]:= l = {i1, i2, i3, i2};
In[3]:= Distinct[l]
Out[3]= {{i1}, {i3}}
In[4]:= test = Table[i[Random[Integer, 1000]],{1000}];
In[5]:= Timing[Distinct[test];]
Out[5]= {0.1 Second, Null}
Comparison:
In[6]:= RemoveDuplicates[a___, i_, i_, b___] := RemoveDuplicates[a, b]
In[7]:= Distinct[a_List] := List @@ RemoveDuplicates @@ Sort[a]
In[8]:= Timing[Distinct[test]; ]
Out[8]= {30.4667 Second, Null}
Cheers,
Paul
____________________________________________________________________
Paul Abbott Phone: +61-8-9380-2734
Department of Physics Fax: +61-8-9380-1014
The University of Western Australia
Nedlands WA 6907 mailto:paul at physics.uwa.edu.au
AUSTRALIA http://www.pd.uwa.edu.au/Paul
God IS a weakly left-handed dice player
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