How to Remove Duplicate Characters from Strings in Python, Preserving or Disregarding the Original Order?

Remove Duplicate Characters from Strings in Python

Problem:

Given a string containing duplicate characters, how can we remove these duplicates while preserving or disregarding the original order of characters?

Solution:

Preserving Original Order:

If preserving the original character order is not necessary, we can utilize the following approach:

"".join(set(string))

This method converts the string to a set, inherently removing all duplicates and leaving only unique characters. Subsequently, we reconvert the set back to a string using the "".join() function, but the order of characters may change.

Disregarding Original Order:

If maintaining the original character order is irrelevant, we can achieve duplicate removal using a dictionary:

result = "".join(dict.fromkeys(string))

In this solution, we create a dictionary with keys set to each character in the string. However, since dictionaries do not allow duplicate keys, the values are discarded, leaving only the unique characters. Finally, we join these unique keys back into a string.

Note for Python Versions:

In Python 3.7 and later, dictionaries preserve the insertion order of their keys. In earlier Python versions (2.7 and up), we may need to import collections.OrderedDict to maintain the original order.

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