Scala program to remove duplicates from a list

1. Introduction

Removing duplicates from a list is a frequent operation in many applications. This ensures that a list contains only unique elements. Scala provides a straightforward method distinct to achieve this functionality. This blog post will walk you through how to remove duplicates from a list using Scala's standard library functions.

2. Program Steps

1. Initialize the Scala environment.

2. Define a list that contains duplicate elements.

3. Use the distinct method provided by the List collection to remove the duplicates.

4. Print the list without duplicates.

5. Execute the program.

3. Code Program

object DuplicateRemover {
  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    // Define a sample list with duplicates
    val numbersWithDuplicates = List(1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 6, 7)

    // Remove duplicates using the distinct method
    val uniqueNumbers = numbersWithDuplicates.distinct

    println(s"Original List: $numbersWithDuplicates")
    println(s"List Without Duplicates: $uniqueNumbers")
  }
}

Output:

Original List: List(1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 3, 6, 7)
List Without Duplicates: List(1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7)

Explanation:

1. We encapsulate the entire program within the DuplicateRemover object.

2. We initialize a list called numbersWithDuplicates containing some duplicate values.

3. To remove the duplicates from the list, we utilize the distinct method, which is a built-in function in Scala for lists.

4. We then print both the original list and the list after removing duplicates to the console.

5. As seen in the output, the duplicate elements 2 and 3 in the original list are removed in the resulting list.