C# LINQ find duplicates in List

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Using LINQ, from a List<int>, how can I retrieve a list that contains entries repeated more than once and their values?

11 Answers
11

The easiest way to solve the problem is to group the elements based on their value, and then pick a representative of the group if there are more than one element in the group. In LINQ, this translates to:

var query = lst.GroupBy(x => x)
              .Where(g => g.Count() > 1)
              .Select(y => y.Key)
              .ToList();

If you want to know how many times the elements are repeated, you can use:

var query = lst.GroupBy(x => x)
              .Where(g => g.Count() > 1)
              .Select(y => new { Element = y.Key, Counter = y.Count() })
              .ToList();

This will return a List of an anonymous type, and each element will have the properties Element and Counter, to retrieve the information you need.

And lastly, if it’s a dictionary you are looking for, you can use

var query = lst.GroupBy(x => x)
              .Where(g => g.Count() > 1)
              .ToDictionary(x => x.Key, y => y.Count());

This will return a dictionary, with your element as key, and the number of times it’s repeated as value.

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