Finding the indices of duplicate values in one array

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Given one array A=[ 1 1 2 3 5 6 7].
I need help to known the indices where there are duplicate values.
Thanks

Answers (8)

Stephan Koehler
Stephan Koehler on 16 Jul 2019
A = [1 2 3 2 5 3]
[v, w] = unique( A, 'stable' );
duplicate_indices = setdiff( 1:numel(A), w )
this should work too, and is elegant
  2 Comments
Jun W
Jun W on 11 Nov 2019
How about finding how many times are those elements repeated?
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 11 Nov 2019
Use histcounts and look for bins with more than 2 counts.
A = [1 2 3 2 5 3]
[counts, edges] = histcounts(A)
A =
1 2 3 2 5 3
counts =
1 2 2 0 1
edges =
Columns 1 through 5
0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5
Column 6
5.5
You can see that the bins for 2 and 3 both have 2 counts so there are multiples of 2 and 3 in A.
Note: This will find any repeats, and they don't have to be consecutive. If you want to look for consecutive repeats, call the diff() function and look for zeros.

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Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 11 May 2018
Edited: Image Analyst on 12 May 2018
Here's one way:
A = [-2 0 1 1 2 3 5 6 6 6 7 11 40]
% Elements 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10 are repeats.
% Assume A is integers and get edges
edges = min(A) : max(A)
[counts, values] = histcounts(A, edges)
repeatedElements = values(counts >= 2)
% Assume they're integers
% Print them out and collect indexes of repeated elements into an array.
indexes = [];
for k = 1 : length(repeatedElements)
indexes = [indexes, find(A == repeatedElements(k))];
end
indexes % Report to the command window.
You get [3,4,8,9,10] as you should.
  8 Comments
Steven Lord
Steven Lord on 10 Mar 2025 at 16:06
The last bin includes both the left and right edges, while the earlier bins include only the left edges. This is stated in the description of the edges input on the histcounts documentation page: "Bin edges, specified as a vector. The first vector element specifies the leading edge of the first bin. The last element specifies the trailing edge of the last bin. The trailing edge is only included for the last bin."
So add on a number that's greater than the maximum element in your data. Inf is a good choice.
A = [-2 0 1 1 2 3 5 6 6 6 7 11 40 40]
A = 1×14
-2 0 1 1 2 3 5 6 6 6 7 11 40 40
<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
edges = [min(A):max(A) Inf];
[counts1, edges1] = histcounts(A, edges);
repeatedElements = edges1(counts1 >= 2)
repeatedElements = 1×3
1 6 40
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<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
Or you could use non-equally spaced bins containing the unique elements from your data.
[counts2, edges2] = histcounts(A, [unique(A) Inf])
counts2 = 1×10
1 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 2
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<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
edges2 = 1×11
-2 0 1 2 3 5 6 7 11 40 Inf
<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
repeatedElements = edges2(counts2 >= 2)
repeatedElements = 1×3
1 6 40
<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
<mw-icon class=""></mw-icon>
If your data spans a wide range this can reduce the number of bins histcounts uses.
whos counts1 edges1 counts2 edges2
Name Size Bytes Class Attributes counts1 1x43 344 double counts2 1x10 80 double edges1 1x44 352 double edges2 1x11 88 double
The unique approach uses 10 bins, the non-unique approach uses 43. This is a fairly small difference for your sample A, but the impact is much larger if you have a distant outlier.
B = [A 5000]; % 5000 is far from the rest of the elements in A
edges = [min(B):max(B) Inf];
[counts1, edges1] = histcounts(B, edges);
[counts2, edges2] = histcounts(B, [unique(B) Inf]);
whos counts1 edges1 counts2 edges2
Name Size Bytes Class Attributes counts1 1x5003 40024 double counts2 1x11 88 double edges1 1x5004 40032 double edges2 1x12 96 double
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 10 Mar 2025 at 16:57
Using edges = [min(B):max(B) Inf]; assumes that the input data is integer.

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Adam
Adam on 21 Apr 2017
Edited: Adam on 21 Apr 2017
[~, uniqueIdx] = unique( A );
duplicateLocations = ismember( A, find( A( setdiff( 1:numel(A), uniqueIdx ) ) ) );
then
find( duplicateLocations )
will give you the indices if you want them rather than a logical vector.
There are probably neater methods though.
If you want only the duplicates after the first then simply
setdiff( 1:numel(A), uniqueIdx )
should do the job.
  9 Comments
CompViscount
CompViscount on 20 Sep 2022
Edited: CompViscount on 20 Sep 2022
Commenting here as it's led me to overall the best answer here, it just has a mistake. The "find" in the 2nd line changes the values into indices before passing to ismember, which just makes the output nonsense. I removed that. Using the same numbers as image analyst above:
A=[ 1 1 2 3 5 6 6 7]
A = 1×8
1 1 2 3 5 6 6 7
[~, uniqueIdx] = unique(A);
dupeIdx = ismember( A, A( setdiff( 1:numel(A), uniqueIdx ) ) );
dupes = A(dupeIdx)
dupes = 1×4
1 1 6 6
dupeLoc = find(dupeIdx)
dupeLoc = 1×4
1 2 6 7

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Jan
Jan on 12 May 2018
Edited: Jan on 2 Jul 2021
function Ind = IndexOfMultiples(A)
T = true(size(A));
off = false;
A = A(:);
for iA = 1:numel(A)
if T(iA) % if not switched already
d = (A(iA) == A);
if sum(d) > 1 % More than 1 occurrence found
T(d) = off; % switch all occurrences
end
end
end
Ind = find(~T);
end
If the input has more than 45 elements, this is faster:
function T = isMultiple(A)
% T = isMultiple(A)
% INPUT: A: Numerical or CHAR array of any dimensions.
% OUTPUT: T: TRUE if element occurs multiple times anywhere in the array.
%
% Tested: Matlab 2009a, 2015b(32/64), 2016b, 2018b, Win7/10
% Author: Jan, Heidelberg, (C) 2021
% License: CC BY-SA 3.0, see: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
T = false(size(A));
[S, idx] = sort(A(:).');
m = [false, diff(S) == 0];
if any(m) % Any equal elements found:
m(strfind(m, [false, true])) = true;
T(idx) = m; % Resort to original order
end
end

MRINAL BHAUMIK
MRINAL BHAUMIK on 28 Jun 2021
A=[ 1 1 2 3 5 6 7 6]
B = A'./A
B = B-diag(diag(B))
[pos1 pos2]=find(B==1)
o/p
pos1 =
2
1
8
6

Anamika
Anamika on 17 Jul 2023
In MATLAB, you can find the indices of duplicate values in an array using the `find` function along with the `unique` function. Here's how you can do it:
A = [1 1 2 3 5 6 7];
% Finding the unique elements in the array
unique_elements = unique(A);
% Initializing an empty array to store the indices of duplicate values
duplicate_indices = [];
% Iterating through each unique element
for i = 1:numel(unique_elements)
% Finding the indices of occurrences of the current unique element
indices = find(A == unique_elements(i));
% If there are more than one occurrence, add the indices to the duplicate_indices array
if numel(indices) > 1
duplicate_indices = [duplicate_indices indices];
end
end
% Displaying the indices of duplicate values
disp(duplicate_indices);
Running this code will give you the indices of the duplicate values in the array A. In this case, the output will be: 1 2
This means that the duplicate values are located at indices 1 and 2 in the array A.

Eduardo Gonzalez Rodriguez
Here is my solution to find repeated values and their counts
function [dup, counts] = duplicates(A)
[dup,~,n] = unique(A, 'rows', 'stable');
counts = accumarray(n, 1, [], @sum);
dup(counts==1) = [];
counts(counts==1) = [];

Piotr
Piotr on 11 May 2023
Hello,
here is my attempt to solve it. I faced similar problem but in my case I wanted to have the result in two column representation. Each row contains indices of repeated values.
A = [ 1 1 2 3 5 6 7 6];
nk = nchoosek(1:length(A),2);
nk(diff(A(nk),[],2)~=0,:) = [];
disp(nk)
Cheers, Piotr

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