C# LINQ find duplicates in List

Question

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

Answer 1

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.