How to group by the elements of an array in Swift

Let's say that I have this code:

class Stat {
   var statEvents : [StatEvents] = []
}

struct StatEvents {
   var name: String
   var date: String
   var hours: Int
}


var currentStat = Stat()

currentStat.statEvents = [
   StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
   StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
   StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
   StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
   StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1)
]

var filteredArray1 : [StatEvents] = []
var filteredArray2 : [StatEvents] = []

I could call as many times manually the next function in order to have 2 arrays grouped by "same name".

filteredArray1 = currentStat.statEvents.filter({$0.name == "dinner"})
filteredArray2 = currentStat.statEvents.filter({$0.name == "lunch"})

The problem is that I won't know the variable value, in this case "dinner" and "lunch", so I would like to group this array of statEvents automatically by name, so I get as many arrays as the name gets different.

How could I do that?

Swift 4:

Since Swift 4, this functionality has been added to the standard library. You can use it like so:

Dictionary(grouping: statEvents, by: { $0.name })
[
  "dinner": [
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1)
  ],
  "lunch": [
    StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1)
]

Swift 3:

public extension Sequence {
    func group<U: Hashable>(by key: (Iterator.Element) -> U) -> [U:[Iterator.Element]] {
        var categories: [U: [Iterator.Element]] = [:]
        for element in self {
            let key = key(element)
            if case nil = categories[key]?.append(element) {
                categories[key] = [element]
            }
        }
        return categories
    }
}

Unfortunately, the append function above copies the underlying array, instead of mutating it in place, which would be preferable. This causes a pretty big slowdown. You can get around the problem by using a reference type wrapper:

class Box<A> {
  var value: A
  init(_ val: A) {
    self.value = val
  }
}

public extension Sequence {
  func group<U: Hashable>(by key: (Iterator.Element) -> U) -> [U:[Iterator.Element]] {
    var categories: [U: Box<[Iterator.Element]>] = [:]
    for element in self {
      let key = key(element)
      if case nil = categories[key]?.value.append(element) {
        categories[key] = Box([element])
      }
    }
    var result: [U: [Iterator.Element]] = Dictionary(minimumCapacity: categories.count)
    for (key,val) in categories {
      result[key] = val.value
    }
    return result
  }
}

Even though you traverse the final dictionary twice, this version is still faster than the original in most cases.

Swift 2:

public extension SequenceType {

  /// Categorises elements of self into a dictionary, with the keys given by keyFunc

  func categorise<U : Hashable>(@noescape keyFunc: Generator.Element -> U) -> [U:[Generator.Element]] {
    var dict: [U:[Generator.Element]] = [:]
    for el in self {
      let key = keyFunc(el)
      if case nil = dict[key]?.append(el) { dict[key] = [el] }
    }
    return dict
  }
}

In your case, you could have the "keys" returned by keyFunc be the names:

currentStat.statEvents.categorise { $0.name }
[  
  dinner: [
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1)
  ], lunch: [
    StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1)
  ]
]

So you'll get a dictionary, where every key is a name, and every value is an array of the StatEvents with that name.

Swift 1

func categorise<S : SequenceType, U : Hashable>(seq: S, @noescape keyFunc: S.Generator.Element -> U) -> [U:[S.Generator.Element]] {
  var dict: [U:[S.Generator.Element]] = [:]
  for el in seq {
    let key = keyFunc(el)
    dict[key] = (dict[key] ?? []) + [el]
  }
  return dict
}

categorise(currentStat.statEvents) { $0.name }

Which gives the output:

extension StatEvents : Printable {
  var description: String {
    return "\(self.name): \(self.date)"
  }
}
print(categorise(currentStat.statEvents) { $0.name })
[
  dinner: [
    dinner: 01-01-2015,
    dinner: 01-01-2015,
    dinner: 01-01-2015
  ], lunch: [
    lunch: 01-01-2015,
    lunch: 01-01-2015
  ]
]

(The swiftstub is here)

With Swift 5, Dictionary has an initializer method called init(grouping:by:). init(grouping:by:) has the following declaration:

init<S>(grouping values: S, by keyForValue: (S.Element) throws -> Key) rethrows where Value == [S.Element], S : Sequence

Creates a new dictionary where the keys are the groupings returned by the given closure and the values are arrays of the elements that returned each specific key.

The following Playground code shows how to use init(grouping:by:) in order to solve your problem:

struct StatEvents: CustomStringConvertible {
    
    let name: String
    let date: String
    let hours: Int
    
    var description: String {
        return "Event: \(name) - \(date) - \(hours)"
    }
    
}

let statEvents = [
    StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "lunch", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1),
    StatEvents(name: "dinner", date: "01-01-2015", hours: 1)
]

let dictionary = Dictionary(grouping: statEvents, by: { (element: StatEvents) in
    return element.name
})
//let dictionary = Dictionary(grouping: statEvents) { $0.name } // also works  
//let dictionary = Dictionary(grouping: statEvents, by: \.name) // also works

print(dictionary)
/*
prints:
[
    "dinner": [Event: dinner - 01-01-2015 - 1, Event: dinner - 01-01-2015 - 1],
    "lunch": [Event: lunch - 01-01-2015 - 1, Event: lunch - 01-01-2015 - 1]
]
*/