In this example, we will create a function in Python which will return the total number of duplicate pair of numbers within a list. For example, if we enter [0,0,0,0] into that function it will return 2 because there are two pairs of duplicate number within that list.
def duplicates(arr):
global count
count = 0
while(len(arr) > 0):
find = arr.pop(0)
for i in range(len(arr)) :
if find == arr[i] :
count += 1
del arr[i]
break
return count
There is another solution written in
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I got here from Planet Python. Your code is correct but it does not follow Python conventions or uses the built-in Python features. For example, you don’t need global variables to solve this problem. I think you might be misleading junior programmers into writing low quality code. Here is a simpler way to solve the problem:
def duplicates(arr):
n_duplicates = 0
while arr:
afind = arr.pop(0)
try:
arr.remove(find)
n_duplicates += 1
except ValueError:
pass
return n_duplicates
assert duplicates([0, 0, 0, 0]) == 2
Thank you very much for your contribution, but are you sure it is a good idea to directly use a python list as the boolean logic to control the while loop?
In addition to using an ill-advised global variable, your solution unexpectedly modifies the array passed in, and can look at array element multiple times. It’s much slower than it needs to be, on several levels, and doesn’t work for arbitrary sequences. Consider, for example:
def duplicates(seq):
from collections import Counter
return sum(n//2 for n in Counter(seq).values())
duplicates([0,0,0,0])
# 2
duplicates(‘abracadabra’)
# 4
And yes, using a bare list as a condition to control a while loop is better than comparing its length to zero, because the latter does far more wasted work, and the simple form is easier for an experienced Python developer to understand.