Swift 3: How to know if a set certain amount of strings match in 2 arrays

Question

I have a simple line of code with 2 String Arrays. They both contain the same strings inside both arrays and I have an if statement that will work if both arrays are the same. Like so:

var firstArray: [String] = ["Music", "Art", "Sports", "Movies"]

var secondArray: [String] = ["Music", "Art", "Sports", "Movies"]



if firstArray == secondArray {



   //they match...

}

However, I want to be able to add a few more strings to the first array so the 2 arrays aren't fully the same, which will cancel out the if statement above BUT I want to run the if statement if 4 or more strings are the same in the second array as they are in the first array. How do I do this? Thank you.

Answer 1

You can find the size of the intersection between the two arrays:

let firstArray = ["Music", "Art", "Sports", "Movies"]
let secondArray = ["Music", "Art", "Sports", "Movies"]

if firstArray == secondArray {
    print("equal")
}

if Set(firstArray).intersection(secondArray).count >= 4 {
    print("At least 4 are equal")
}

Keep in mind that converting an Array to a Set is a O(n) operation. If you're doing this often, cache the Set rather than recomputing it on every check.

Swift 3: How to know if a set certain amount of strings match in 2 arrays

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