How to compare two NSArrays for equal content in any order?
I have two NSArray
s where the objects of the arrays are the same but might be in different indices. It should print both are equal irrespective of their indices.
NSArray *arr1 = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:@"aa", @"bb", @"1", @"cc", nil];
NSArray *arr2 = [[NSArray alloc]initWithObjects:@"bb", @"cc", @"1", @"aa", nil];
if ([arr1 isEqualToArray:arr2])
{
NSLog(@"Equal");
}
else
{
NSLog(@"Not equal");
}
The above code is printing 'Not equal'
but it should print 'Equal'
. How can I do this?
Those two arrays are not equal. Two arrays are equal is they both have the same objects in the same order.
If you want to compare with no regard to order then you need to use two NSSet
objects.
NSSet *set1 = [NSSet setWithArray:arr1];
NSSet *set2 = [NSSet setWithArray:arr2];
if ([set1 isEqualToSet:set2]) {
// equal
}
Most of the answers here actually do not work for fairly common cases (see their comments). There is a very good data structure that will solve this problem: NSCountedSet.
The counted set is unordered, but does care about the number of items present, so you don't end up with @[1, @1, @2] == @[@1, @2, @2]
.
NSArray *array1 = @[@1, @1, @2];
NSArray *array2 = @[@1, @2, @2];
NSCountedSet *set1 = [[NSCountedSet alloc] initWithArray:array1];
NSCountedSet *set2 = [[NSCountedSet alloc] initWithArray:array2];
BOOL isEqual = [set1 isEqualToSet:set2];
NSLog(@"isEqual:%d", isEqual);
Try this. What I am doing is make a copy of your first array & remove copy elements from the second array. If its empty then its equal, else not equal.
This has lesser memory foot print than @rmaddy solution. You create a duplicate of only one array not both arrays...
NSMutableArray *copyArray;
if([arr1 count] >= [arr2 count])
{
copyArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:arr1];
[copyArray removeObjectsInArray:arr2];
}
else //c(arr2) > c(arr1)
{
copyArray = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:arr2];
[copyArray removeObjectsInArray:arr1];
}
if([copyArray count] != 0)
NSLog('Not Equal');
else
NSLog('Equal');
UPDATE1: If you want to use arr2
after this then its been changed. You need to make a copy of it, then in that case memory-wise its same as what rmaddy solution takes. But still this solution is superior since, NSSet
creation time is far more than NSArray
- source.
UPDATE2: Updated to make the answer more comprehensive incase one array is bigger than other.