Detecting Duplicates: A Python Guide to Identifying Duplicate Values in Iterables

Learn how to create a Python function that checks for duplicate values in lists, tuples, and other Iterables

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Introduction

In this tutorial, we’ll explore a Python programming problem that involves writing a function to check whether an iterable has duplicate values or not. The function will accept an iterable as input and return a boolean value indicating the presence of duplicate values.

By the end of this post, you’ll have a better understanding of how to work with iterables, use Python’s built-in data structures, and create efficient algorithms for detecting duplicates.

Step 1: Defining the Function

First, let’s define a function called has_duplicates that takes a single argument, iterable, which is the input iterable:

def has_duplicates(iterable):
    # Check if the iterable has duplicate values

Step 2: Initializing a Set

Inside the function, we’ll initialize an empty set called seen. Sets are unordered collections of unique elements, which makes them perfect for detecting duplicates: