Collection that allows only unique items in .NET?

Is there a collection in C# that will not let you add duplicate items to it? For example, with the silly class of

public class Customer {
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public string Address { get; set; }

    public override int GetHashCode() {
        return (FirstName + LastName + Address).GetHashCode();
    }
    
    public override bool Equals(object obj) {
        Customer C = obj as Customer;
        return C != null && String.Equals(this.FirstName, C.FirstName) && String.Equals(this.LastName, C.LastName) && String.Equals(this.Address, C.Address);
    }
}

The following code will (obviously) throw an exception:

Customer Adam = new Customer { Address = "A", FirstName = "Adam", LastName = "" };
Customer AdamDup = new Customer { Address = "A", FirstName = "Adam", LastName = "" };

Dictionary<Customer, bool> CustomerHash = new Dictionary<Customer, bool>();
CustomerHash.Add(Adam, true);
CustomerHash.Add(AdamDup, true);

But is there a class that will similarly guarantee uniqueness, but without KeyValuePairs? I thought HashSet<T> would do that, but having read the docs it seems that class is just a set implementation (go figure).

HashSet<T> is what you're looking for. From MSDN (emphasis added):

>The HashSet<T> class provides high-performance set operations. A set is a collection that contains no duplicate elements, and whose elements are in no particular order.

Note that the HashSet<T>.Add(T item) method returns a bool -- true if the item was added to the collection; false if the item was already present.

How about just an extension method on HashSet?

public static void AddOrThrow<T>(this HashSet<T> hash, T item)
{
    if (!hash.Add(item))
        throw new ValueExistingException();
}

From the HashSet<T> page on MSDN:

> The HashSet(Of T) class provides high-performance set operations. A set is a collection that contains no duplicate elements, and whose elements are in no particular order.

(emphasis mine)

If all you need is to ensure uniqueness of elements, then HashSet is what you need.

What do you mean when you say "just a set implementation"? A set is (by definition) a collection of unique elements that doesn't save element order.

Just to add my 2 cents...

if you need a ValueExistingException-throwing HashSet<T> you can also create your collection easily:

public class ThrowingHashSet<T> : ICollection<T>
{
    private HashSet<T> innerHash = new HashSet<T>();

    public void Add(T item)
    {
        if (!innerHash.Add(item))
            throw new ValueExistingException();
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        innerHash.Clear();
    }

    public bool Contains(T item)
    {
        return innerHash.Contains(item);
    }

    public void CopyTo(T[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        innerHash.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
    }

    public int Count
    {
        get { return innerHash.Count; }
    }

    public bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return false; }
    }

    public bool Remove(T item)
    {
        return innerHash.Remove(item);
    }

    public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return innerHash.GetEnumerator();
    }

    System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return this.GetEnumerator();
    }
}

this can be useful for example if you need it in many places...

You can try HashSet<T>

You may look into something kind of Unique List as follows

public class UniqueList<T>
{
    public List<T> List
    {
        get;
        private set;
    }
    List<T> _internalList;
    
    public static UniqueList<T> NewList
    {
        get
        {
            return new UniqueList<T>();
        }
    }

    private UniqueList()
    {            
        _internalList = new List<T>();
        List = new List<T>();
    }

    public void Add(T value)
    {
        List.Clear();
        _internalList.Add(value);
        List.AddRange(_internalList.Distinct());
        //return List;
    }

    public void Add(params T[] values)
    {
        List.Clear();
        _internalList.AddRange(values);
        List.AddRange(_internalList.Distinct());
       // return List;
    }

    public bool Has(T value)
    {
        return List.Contains(value);
    }
}

and you can use it like follows

var uniquelist = UniqueList<string>.NewList;
uniquelist.Add("abc","def","ghi","jkl","mno");
uniquelist.Add("abc","jkl");
var _myList = uniquelist.List;

will only return "abc","def","ghi","jkl","mno" always even when duplicates are added to it