How to remove duplicates from Python list and keep order?

78
votes

Given a list of strings, I want to sort it alphabetically and remove duplicates. I know I can do this:

from sets import Set
[...]
myHash = Set(myList)

but I don't know how to retrieve the list members from the hash in alphabetical order.

I'm not married to the hash, so any way to accomplish this will work. Also, performance is not an issue, so I'd prefer a solution that is expressed in code clearly to a fast but more opaque one.

6
pythonlistsortingunique
Also see here for more information - user1129682
This question, after @ColonelPanic's edit, is kind of a mess; the question in the title and the question in the body are not the same. The title indicates that the original order, pre-duplicate-removal, should be preserved. But the body presents a scenario where this is not in fact necessary. - Mark Amery

6 Answers

196
votes

A list can be sorted and deduplicated using built-in functions:

myList = sorted(set(myList))
  • set is a built-in function for Python >= 2.3
  • sorted is a built-in function for Python >= 2.4
12
votes

If your input is already sorted, then there may be a simpler way to do it:

from operator import itemgetter
from itertools import groupby
unique_list = list(map(itemgetter(0), groupby(yourList)))
6
votes

If you want to keep order of the original list, just use OrderedDict with None as values.

In Python2:

    from collections import OrderedDict
    from itertools import izip, repeat

    unique_list = list(OrderedDict(izip(my_list, repeat(None))))

In Python3 it's even simpler:

    from collections import OrderedDict
    from itertools import repeat

    unique_list = list(OrderedDict(zip(my_list, repeat(None))))

If you don't like iterators (zip and repeat) you can use a generator (works both in 2 & 3):

    from collections import OrderedDict
    unique_list = list(OrderedDict((element, None) for element in my_list))
3
votes

If it's clarity you're after, rather than speed, I think this is very clear:

def sortAndUniq(input):
  output = []
  for x in input:
    if x not in output:
      output.append(x)
  output.sort()
  return output

It's O(n^2) though, with the repeated use of not in for each element of the input list.

2
votes

> but I don't know how to retrieve the list members from the hash in alphabetical order.

Not really your main question, but for future reference Rod's answer using sorted can be used for traversing a dict's keys in sorted order:

for key in sorted(my_dict.keys()):
   print key, my_dict[key]
   ...

and also because tuple's are ordered by the first member of the tuple, you can do the same with items:

for key, val in sorted(my_dict.items()):
    print key, val
    ...
0
votes

For the string data

 output = []

     def uniq(input):
         if input not in output:
            output.append(input)
 print output