Finding the first non-repeating character in a String using Swift - swift

Question

This finds the duplicates in the array, but i'm looking for something that finds the first non-repeating character in a string. I've been trying to figure out a way to do this and I cannot figure it out. This is the closest i've gotten.
var strArray = ["P","Q","R","S","T","P","R","A","T","B","C","P","P","P","P","P","C","P","P","J"]
println(strArray)
var filter = Dictionary<String,Int>()
var len = strArray.count
for var index = 0; index < len ;++index {
var value = strArray[index]
if (filter[value] != nil) {
strArray.removeAtIndex(index--)
len--
}else{
filter[value] = 1
}
}
println(strArray)

Answer 1

In order to tell if a character repeats itself, go through the entire array once, incrementing the count of occurrences in a dictionary:
let characters = ["P","Q","R","S","T","P","R","A","T","B","C","P","P","P","P","P","C","P","P","J"]
var counts: [String: Int] = [:]
for character in characters {
counts[character] = (counts[character] ?? 0) + 1
}
let nonRepeatingCharacters = characters.filter({counts[$0] == 1})
// ["Q", "S", "A", "B", "J"]
let firstNonRepeatingCharacter = nonRepeatingCharacters.first!
// "Q"

Answer 2

Here is a simple solution
let inputString = "PQRSTPRATBCPPPPPCPPJ"
func nonRepeat (_ input: String) -> String {
for char in input {
if input.firstIndex(of: char) == input.lastIndex(of: char) {
return String(char)
}
}
return ""
}
print (nonRepeat(inputString))
In the above example it would print "Q"

Answer 3

func firstNonRepeatedCharacter(input: String) -> Character?{
var characterCount : [Character : Int] = [:]
var uniqueCharacter: Character?
for character in input{
if let count = characterCount[character]{
characterCount[character] = count + 1
if(uniqueCharacter == character)
{
uniqueCharacter = nil
}
}
else{
characterCount[character] = 1
if(uniqueCharacter == nil){
uniqueCharacter = character
}
}
}
return uniqueCharacter
}
Without extra loop to find character from characterCount dictionary

Answer 4

Here is the way I have found to detect the first non-repeated character. It removes spaces and punctuation to find the actual letter or number that does not repeat.
extension String {
func removeNonAlphaNumChars() -> String {
let charSet = NSCharacterSet.alphanumericCharacterSet().invertedSet
return self
.componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet(charSet)
.joinWithSeparator("")
}
var firstNonRepeatedCharacter: Character? {
let alphaNumString = self.removeNonAlphaNumChars()
let characters = alphaNumString.characters
let count = characters.count
guard count > 0 else { return nil }
// Find unique chars
var dict: [Character: Int?] = [:]
for (index, char) in characters.enumerate() {
if dict[char] != nil {
dict[char] = (nil as Int?)
}
else {
dict[char] = index
}
}
return dict.filter { $0.1 != nil }.sort { $0.1 < $1.1 }.first?.0
}
}

Answer 5

I totally wonder why the accepted answer was considered correct. They are using
.first
method of a dictionary and that according to documentation would return a random element in the dictionary and not the first element as a dictionary in swift is not ordered like an array.
please do find below an implementation that works
func firstNonRepeatingLetter(_ str: String) -> String{
var characterDict = [String : Int]()
for character in str{
let lower = character.lowercased()
if let count = characterDict[lower]{
characterDict[lower] = count + 1
}else{
characterDict[lower] = 1
}
}
let filtered = characterDict.filter { $0.value == 1}
for character in str{
let lower = character.lowercased()
if let _ = filtered[lower]{
return lower
}
}
return ""
}
firstNonRepeatingLetter("moonmen") would return "e".

Answer 6

We can iterate once and keep the letter counts inside a dictionary.
Then, iterate again and return first letter where we see it was encountered once only (or "_" if not found a non-repeating letter):
func firstNotRepeatingCharacter(s: String) -> Character {
var letterCounts: [String: Int] = [:]
var result: Character = "_"
for letter in s {
if let currentLetterCount = letterCounts[String(letter)] {
letterCounts[String(letter)] = currentLetterCount + 1
} else {
letterCounts[String(letter)] = 1
}
}
for letter in s {
if letterCounts[String(letter)] == 1 {
result = letter
break
}
}
return result
}

Answer 7

OrderedDictionary makes this easy for all Sequences of Hashables, not just Strings:
import struct OrderedCollections.OrderedDictionary
extension Sequence where Element: Hashable {
var firstUniqueElement: Element? {
OrderedDictionary(zip(self, true)) { _, _ in false }
.first(where: \.value)?
.key
}
}
/// `zip` a sequence with a single value, instead of another sequence.
public func zip<Sequence: Swift.Sequence, Constant>(
_ sequence: Sequence, _ constant: Constant
) -> LazyMapSequence<
LazySequence<Sequence>.Elements,
(LazySequence<Sequence>.Element, Constant)
> {
sequence.lazy.map { ($0, constant) }
}

Answer 8

func getFirstUniqueChar(string:String)->Character?{
var counts: [String: Int] = [:]
for character in string {
let charString = "\(character)"
counts[charString] = (counts[charString] ?? 0) + 1
}
let firstNonRepeatingCharacter = string.first {counts["\($0)"] == 1}
return firstNonRepeatingCharacter
}
print(getFirstUniqueChar(string: string))

Answer 9

import Foundation
import Glibc
var str:String = "aacbbcee"//your input string
var temp:String = ""
var dict:[Character:Int] = [:]
for char in str{
if let count = dict[char]{
dict[char] = count+1//storing values in dict and incrmenting counts o key
}
else{
dict[char] = 0
}
}
var arr:[Character] = []
for (key, value) in dict{
if value == 0{
arr.append(key)//filtering out, take characters which has value>0
} //int(arr)
}//print(arr.count)
if arr.count != 0{
outer:for char in str{//outer is labeling the loop
for i in arr{
if i == char{
print(i,"is first")//matching char with array elements if found break
break outer
}
else{
continue
}
}
}
}
else{
print("not found")
}

Answer 10

func firstNonRepeatedChar(string: String) -> Character {
var arr: [Character] = []
var dict: [Character : Int] = [:]
for character in string.description {
arr.append(character)
}
for character in arr {
dict[character] = (dict[character] ?? 0) + 1
}
let nonRepeatedArray = arr.filter { char in
if dict[char] == 1 {return true}
return false
}
let firstNonRepeatedChar = nonRepeatedArray.first
return firstNonRepeatedChar!
}
print(firstNonRepeatedChar(string: "strinstrig"))