check if all elements of an array have the same value in Swift

With Swift 5, you can use one of the four following ways in order to tests if all elements of an array are equal.

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#1. Using Array‘s allSatisfy(_:) method

allSatisfy(_:) returns a Boolean value indicating whether every element of a sequence satisfies a given predicate. You can set the predicate to test if all elements of the array are equal:

let array = [1, 1, 1]

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.dropFirst().allSatisfy({ $0 == array.first })
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true

let array = [1, 1, 3]

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.dropFirst().allSatisfy({ $0 == array.first })
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: false

let array = [Int]()

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.dropFirst().allSatisfy({ $0 == array.first })
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true

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#2. Using Array‘s reduce(_:_:) method

As an alternative to allSatisfy(_:), you can use reduce(_:_:):

let array = [1, 1, 1]

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.dropFirst().reduce(true) { (partialResult, element) in
    return partialResult && element == array.first
}
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true

let array = [1, 1, 3]

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.dropFirst().reduce(true) { (partialResult, element) in
    return partialResult && element == array.first
}
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: false

let array = [Int]()

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.dropFirst().reduce(true) { (partialResult, element) in
    return partialResult && element == array.first
}
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true

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#3. Using elementsEqual(_:) method

elementsEqual(_:) returns a Boolean value indicating whether two sequences contain the same elements in the same order. Therefore you can create a new collection by repeating the first element of the initial array and compare the former with the latter:

let array = [1, 1, 1]

precondition(!array.isEmpty)
let repeated = repeatElement(array[0], count: array.count)

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.elementsEqual(repeated)
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true

let array = [1, 1, 3]

precondition(!array.isEmpty)
let repeated = repeatElement(array[0], count: array.count)

let hasAllItemsEqual = array.elementsEqual(repeated)
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: false

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#4. Using Set‘s init(_:) initalizer

If all elements of an array are equal, creating a set from this array should result in the set having only one element:

let array = [1, 1, 1]

let set = Set(array)
let hasAllItemsEqual = set.count <= 1
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true

let array = [1, 1, 3]

let set = Set(array)
let hasAllItemsEqual = set.count <= 1
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: false

let array = [Int]()

let set = Set(array)
let hasAllItemsEqual = set.count <= 1
print(hasAllItemsEqual) // prints: true