Getting the "diff" between two arrays in C#?

from the MSDN 101 LINQ samples....

public void Linq52() {
    int[] numbersA = { 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 };
    int[] numbersB = { 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 };

    IEnumerable<int> aOnlyNumbers = numbersA.Except(numbersB);

    Console.WriteLine("Numbers in first array but not second array:");
    foreach (var n in aOnlyNumbers) {
        Console.WriteLine(n);
    }
}

Here are the benchmarks of LINQ extension methods. The results were obtained during the development of a real program.

The tests: 2 lists (lst1 and lst2) each approximately 250000 objects. Each object (class Key) contains a string and an integer. The second list mostly contains the same entries as the first one, but some new entries are added and some are removed.

I tested the Except extension method.

var except = lst2.Except(lst1);

List lst = except.ToList();

These 2 lines produced 600 items list of “new additions”. I timed it using the StopWatch object. The speed is astonishing:220 ms. The computer I used is by no means a “speedy Gonzales”. Core 2 Duo T7700 – 2.4GHz.

Note:

Here is the class Key, which implements IEquatable i-face.

public class Key : IEquatable<Key>
{
    public int Index { get; private set; }
    public string Name { get; private set; }

    public Key(string keyName, int sdIndex)
    {
        this.Name = keyName;
        this.Index = sdIndex;
    }

 // IEquatable implementation
    public bool Equals(Key other)
    {
        //Check whether the compared object is null.
        if (Object.ReferenceEquals(other, null)) return false;
        //Check whether the compared object references the same data.
        if (Object.ReferenceEquals(this, other)) return true;
        //Check whether the products' properties are equal.
        return Index.Equals(other.Index) && Name.Equals(other.Name);
    }

    // If Equals() returns true for a pair of objects 
    // then GetHashCode() must return the same value for these objects.
    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        //Get hash code for the name field if it is not null.
        int hashKeyName = Name == null ? 0 : Name.GetHashCode();
        //Get hash code for the index field.
        int hashKeyIndex = Index.GetHashCode();
        //Calculate the hash code for the Key.
        return hashKeyName ^ hashKeyIndex;
    }
}

If you've got LINQ available to you, you can use Except and Distinct. The sets you asked for in the question are respectively:

- array2.Except(array1)
- array1.Except(array2)
- array1.Intersect(array2)