Question

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More efficient way to remove elements from an array list

I have developed an array list

ArrayList<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();

       list.add("1");
       list.add("2");
       list.add("3");
       list.add("3");
       list.add("5");
       list.add("6");
       list.add("7");
       list.add("7");
       list.add("1");
       list.add("10");
       list.add("2");
       list.add("12");

Now what I was trying to remove duplicate elements from it but this time I do not want to convert it into set or having an iteration loop in list itself , what I was trying any built in method of List or Collections class that will remove the duplicates or is there any other way to achieve this , please advise, thanks in advance

Answer 1

There is simply no solution for what you’re asking. Don’t use List in the first place – use Set. If you’re concerned about preserving order of insertions, there is LinkedHashSet. If you need to return List from the method – use LinkedHashSet, and then convert it into List; or consider returning Collection, not List.