所有的答案要么复制列表，要么创建一个新列表，要么使用慢函数，要么就是慢得令人痛苦。

据我所知，这是我所知道的最快和最便宜的方法(同时，还得到了一个非常有经验的实时物理优化程序员的支持)。

// Duplicates will be noticed after a sort O(nLogn)
list.Sort();

// Store the current and last items. Current item declaration is not really needed, and probably optimized by the compiler, but in case it's not...
int lastItem = -1;
int currItem = -1;

int size = list.Count;

// Store the index pointing to the last item we want to keep in the list
int last = size - 1;

// Travel the items from last to first O(n)
for (int i = last; i >= 0; --i)
{
    currItem = list[i];

    // If this item was the same as the previous one, we don't want it
    if (currItem == lastItem)
    {
        // Overwrite last in current place. It is a swap but we don't need the last
       list[i] = list[last];

        // Reduce the last index, we don't want that one anymore
        last--;
    }

    // A new item, we store it and continue
    else
        lastItem = currItem;
}

// We now have an unsorted list with the duplicates at the end.

// Remove the last items just once
list.RemoveRange(last + 1, size - last - 1);

// Sort again O(n logn)
list.Sort();

最终成本为:

nlogn + n + nlogn = n + 2nlogn = O(nlogn)非常漂亮。

关于RemoveRange注意事项: 由于我们不能设置列表的计数并避免使用Remove函数，我不知道这个操作的确切速度，但我猜这是最快的方法。

扩展方法可能是一种不错的方式……就像这样:

public static List<T> Deduplicate<T>(this List<T> listToDeduplicate)
{
    return listToDeduplicate.Distinct().ToList();
}

然后像这样调用，例如:

List<int> myFilteredList = unfilteredList.Deduplicate();

也许您应该考虑使用HashSet。

从MSDN链接:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        HashSet<int> evenNumbers = new HashSet<int>();
        HashSet<int> oddNumbers = new HashSet<int>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        {
            // Populate numbers with just even numbers.
            evenNumbers.Add(i * 2);

            // Populate oddNumbers with just odd numbers.
            oddNumbers.Add((i * 2) + 1);
        }

        Console.Write("evenNumbers contains {0} elements: ", evenNumbers.Count);
        DisplaySet(evenNumbers);

        Console.Write("oddNumbers contains {0} elements: ", oddNumbers.Count);
        DisplaySet(oddNumbers);

        // Create a new HashSet populated with even numbers.
        HashSet<int> numbers = new HashSet<int>(evenNumbers);
        Console.WriteLine("numbers UnionWith oddNumbers...");
        numbers.UnionWith(oddNumbers);

        Console.Write("numbers contains {0} elements: ", numbers.Count);
        DisplaySet(numbers);
    }

    private static void DisplaySet(HashSet<int> set)
    {
        Console.Write("{");
        foreach (int i in set)
        {
            Console.Write(" {0}", i);
        }
        Console.WriteLine(" }");
    }
}

/* This example produces output similar to the following:
 * evenNumbers contains 5 elements: { 0 2 4 6 8 }
 * oddNumbers contains 5 elements: { 1 3 5 7 9 }
 * numbers UnionWith oddNumbers...
 * numbers contains 10 elements: { 0 2 4 6 8 1 3 5 7 9 }
 */

如果你使用。net 3+，你可以使用Linq。

List<T> withDupes = LoadSomeData();
List<T> noDupes = withDupes.Distinct().ToList();

作为一个辅助方法(没有Linq):

public static List<T> Distinct<T>(this List<T> list)
{
    return (new HashSet<T>(list)).ToList();
}

通过Nuget安装MoreLINQ包，你可以很容易地通过属性区分对象列表

IEnumerable<Catalogue> distinctCatalogues = catalogues.DistinctBy(c => c.CatalogueCode);