Remove Duplicates in Ruby Array without Using the uniq Method

Mcode19

Hi,

Any help on the following assignment would be appreciated.

Remove Duplicates
You are to write a function called unique that takes an array of integers and returns the array with duplicates removed. It must return the values in the same order as first seen in the given array. Thus no sorting should be done, if 52 appears before 10 in the given array then it should also be that 52 appears before 10 in the returned array.

Assumptions
All values given are integers (they can be positive or negative).
You are given an array but it may be empty.
They array may have duplicates or it may not.
You cannot use the uniq method on Arrays (don't even try it), or the nub function from Data.List.
Example
puts unique([1, 5, 2, 0, 2, -3, 1, 10]).inspect
[1, 5, 2, 0, -3, 10]

puts unique([]).inspect
[]

puts unique([5, 2, 1, 3]).inspect
[5, 2, 1, 3]
What We Are Testing
We are testing basic array usage and knowledge. There are many ways to solve this and advanced users may find faster ways to solve this.

avan

Assuming you can use the .include? method here is what I would do.

initialize new empty array
Iterate over original array
Check if current element in iteration is in new array
If not add it to new array
Return new array

I would suggest trying to implement the algorithm above before looking at the solution below.

def unique(original_array)
  # Step 1)
  unique_array = []
  # Step 2)
  for number in original_array do
    # Step 3)
    if !(unique_array.include? number)
      # Step 4)
      unique_array.push number
    end
  end
  # Step 5)
  return unique_array
end

Hope this helps.

avan

Assuming you can use the .include? method here is what I would do.

initialize new empty array
Iterate over original array
Check if current element in iteration is in new array
If not add it to new array
Return new array

I would suggest trying to implement the algorithm above before looking at the solution below.

def unique(original_array)
  # Step 1)
  unique_array = []
  # Step 2)
  for number in original_array do
    # Step 3)
    if !(unique_array.include? number)
      # Step 4)
      unique_array.push number
    end
  end
  # Step 5)
  return unique_array
end

Hope this helps.