def unique(inlist, keepstr=True): typ = type(inlist) if not typ == list: inlist = list(inlist) i = 0 while i < len(inlist): try: del inlist[inlist.index(inlist[i], i + 1)] except: i += 1 if not typ in (str, unicode): inlist = typ(inlist) else: if keepstr: inlist = ''.join(inlist) return inlist ## ## testing... ## assert unique( [[1], [2]] ) == [[1], [2]] assert unique( ((1,),(2,)) ) == ((1,), (2,)) assert unique( ([1,],[2,]) ) == ([1,], [2,]) assert unique( ([1+2J],[2+1J],[1+2J]) ) == ([1+2j], [2+1j]) assert unique( ([1+2J],[1+2J]) ) == ([1+2j],) assert unique( [0] * 1000 ) == [0] assert unique( [1, 2, 3, 1, 2]) == [1, 2, 3] assert unique( [3, 2, 3, 1, 2]) == [3, 2, 1] s = "iterable dict based unique" assert unique(s) == 'iterabl dcsunq' assert unique(s, False) == ['i', 't', 'e', 'r', 'a', 'b', 'l', ' ', 'd', 'c', 's', 'u', 'n', 'q'] s = unicode(s) assert unique(s, False) == [u'i', u't', u'e', u'r', u'a', u'b', u'l', u' ', u'd', u'c', u's', u'u', u'n', u'q'] assert unique(s) == u'iterabl dcsunq' # all asserts should pass!