How we filter two lists

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Fill out the C# method below to return a list of numbers that are in either list1 or list2, but not both lists.

C#

public List<int> ListDifference(List<int> list1, List<int> list2)
{
  // FILL ME OUT
}

Posted 29-Jan-13 22:58pm

rummer

Updated 30-Jan-13 0:51am

Orcun Iyigun

v2

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Pete O'Hanlon · Answer 1 · 2013-01-30T06:30:00

There's a really simple way to do this with Linq. Basically, you concatenate the lists together and group them, then you search for items where the count of them is 1. Try this query out for size:

C#

List<int> countDistinct = firstList.Concat(secondList)
  .GroupBy(x => x)
  .Where(g => g.Count() == 1)
  .Select(g => g.Key).ToList();

It's as easy as that - and reads a lot easier to read than trying to compare two independent loops.

I did a comparison between this solution and the solution presented as Solution 3, and the time difference was quite staggering. I created two lists, the first had 1 million numbers in it, and the second had 2 million numbers - only 6 numbers don't match between the 2 lists. The Contains solution is a very inefficient search mechanism on large sets, so the search ends up taking an inordinate amount of time. To be honest, I gave up waiting for the second search to return after about 20 minutes. The Linq solution took 1745 milliseconds.

Thomas Daniels · Answer 2 · 2013-01-30T07:00:00

Solution 5

Hi,

Try this:

C#

public List<int> ListDifference(List<int> list1, List<int> list2)
{
  list1.Except(list2).Concat(list2.Except(list1)).ToList();

Enumerable.Except(TSource)[^]

Hope this helps.

Posted 30-Jan-13 7:00am

Thomas Daniels

Updated 30-Jan-13 7:06am

v2

Ksh_Sr · Answer 3 · 2013-01-30T00:12:00

Solution 3

try this code to get difference

C#

for(int i=0;i<list1.Count;i++)
          {
              if(!list2.Contains(list1[i]))
                  c.Add(list1[i]);
          }

           for(int i=0;i<list2.Count;i++)
          {
              if(!list1.Contains(list2[i]) && !c.Contains(list2[i]))
                  c.Add(list1[i]);
          }
return c;

Posted 30-Jan-13 0:12am

Ksh_Sr

Comments

Pete O'Hanlon 30-Jan-13 12:31pm

This is a very inefficient search. On large datasets, Contains takes a long time as it iterates over the items 1 by 1 looking for a match. I proposed a Linq query, below, which is much more efficient.

lukeer · Answer 4 · 2013-01-30T00:01:00

1. Declare and define a list that will contain your result
2. Copy those items to the result list that are in list1 but not in list2.
2.1. Use a loop that checks for each item in list1
2.2. if it is also part of list2. Copy those who aren't.
3. Copy those items to the result list that are in list2 but not in list1.
4. Return the result list.

Refer to the following links
Generic list[^], if keyword[^] List<t>.Contains(T item)[^], List<t>.Add(T item)[^]

How we filter two lists

4 solutions

Solution 4

Solution 5

Solution 3

Solution 2

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