How to check if a value in a dictionary has duplicates? - swift

Question

The algorithm below checks to see if an array has at least two or more duplicates. It uses a dictionary to store the occurrences; the time complexity is linear because it has to traverse the dictionary to see if a key occurs twice. In swift, how can I look up a value to see if it occurs more than twice in constant time ?
func containsDuplicate(_ nums: [Int]) -> Bool {
var frequencyTable = [Int:Int]()
for num in nums {
frequencyTable[num] = (frequencyTable[num] ?? 0 ) + 1
}
for value in frequencyTable.values{
if value >= 2 {
return true
}
}
return false
}
containsDuplicate([1,1,2,3,3,3,3,4])

Answer 1

The second loop is not necessary if the first loop checks if the current element has already been inserted before, and returns from the function in that case:
func containsDuplicate(_ nums: [Int]) -> Bool {
var frequencyTable = [Int:Int]()
for num in nums {
if frequencyTable[num] != nil {
return true
}
frequencyTable[num] = 1
}
return false
}
Then it becomes apparent that we don't need a dictionary, a set is sufficient:
func containsDuplicate(_ nums: [Int]) -> Bool {
var seen = Set<Int>()
for num in nums {
if seen.contains(num) {
return true
}
seen.insert(num)
}
return false
}
This can be further simplified: The “insert and check if element was already present” operation can be done in a single call:
func containsDuplicate(_ nums: [Int]) -> Bool {
var seen = Set<Int>()
for num in nums {
if !seen.insert(num).inserted {
return true
}
}
return false
}
This is similar to the solution from this answer
return nums.count != Set(nums).count
but possibly more efficient: The function returns immediately when a duplicate element has been detected.
Finally we can make the function generic, so that it works with all arrays of a hashable type:
func containsDuplicate<T: Hashable>(_ array: [T]) -> Bool {
var seen = Set<T>()
for element in array {
if !seen.insert(element).inserted {
return true
}
}
return false
}
Example:
print(containsDuplicate([1,1,2,3,3,3,3,4])) // true
print(containsDuplicate(["A", "X"])) // false
Or as an extension for arbitrary collections of a hashable type:
extension Collection where Element: Hashable {
func containsDuplicate() -> Bool {
var seen = Set<Element>()
for element in self {
if !seen.insert(element).inserted {
return true
}
}
return false
}
}
print([1,1,2,3,3,3,3,4].containsDuplicate())
print(["A", "X"].containsDuplicate())

Answer 2

You just want to know if it has duplicate, you can use use set and compare the length.
func containsDuplicate(_ nums: [Int]) -> Bool {
return Set(nums).count != nums.count
}
like this examples, because the set remove the duplicate values.