Finding unique elements of a list

[Thomas Lindgren]

Here is a straightforward version with good O(.):
first sort the list, then drop consecutive duplicates.

Complexity is given by the sort (assuming unit cost of
comparing elements). O(N log N), presumably? 

unique(Xs) ->
    rem_dups(lists:sort(Xs)).

rem_dups([X|Xs]) ->
    [X|drop(X, Xs)];
rem_dups([]) ->
    [].

drop(X, [X|Xs]) ->
    drop(X, Xs);
drop(X, Ys) ->
    rem_dups(Ys).

The code above seems to work, but could be optimized
further; which is left as an exercise to the reader.

Best,
Thomas



		
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