Question

since this

(vb.net)

    Dim test As New List(Of Integer())
    test.Add(New Integer() {1, 2, 3})
    test.Add(New Integer() {1, 3, 3})
    test.Add(New Integer() {3, 2, 3})
    test.Add(New Integer() {1, 1, 3})
    test.Add(New Integer() {1, 2, 3})
    Dim a = test.Distinct

(c#)

    List<int[]> test = new List<int[]>();
    test.Add(new int[] { 1, 2, 3 });
    test.Add(new int[] { 1, 3, 3 });
    test.Add(new int[] { 3, 2, 3 });
    test.Add(new int[] { 1, 1, 3 });
    test.Add(new int[] { 1, 2, 3 });
    var a = test.Distinct();

does not work, how would you do the distinct?

Answer 1

You have to provide a custom Equality comparer for Distinct to work in this case – otherwise you are comparing references, here’s an initial attempt:

class SequenceComparer<T,U> : IEqualityComparer<T> where T: IEnumerable<U>
{
    public bool Equals(T x, T y)
    {
        return Enumerable.SequenceEqual(x, y);
    }

    public int GetHashCode(T obj)
    {
        int hash = 19;
        foreach (var item  in obj)
        {
            hash = hash * 31 + item.GetHashCode();
        }
        return hash;
    }
}

Now you can use this in your call to Distinct():

var results = test.Distinct(new SequenceComparer<int[],int>())
                  .ToList();