Sets

A set is an unordered collection of elements that do not contain any duplicates. Set elements can be of any data type—primitive types, collections, sObjects, user-defined types, and built-in Apex types. For example, the following table represents a set of strings, that uses city names:

Sets can contain collections that can be nested within one another. For example, you can have a set of lists of sets of Integers. A set can contain up to four levels of nested collections inside it, that is, up to five levels overall.

1new Set<String>()

The following are ways to declare and populate a set:

1Set<String> s1 = new Set<String>{'a', 'b + c'}; // Defines a new set with two elements
2Set<String> s2 = new Set<String>(s1); // Defines a new set that contains the 
3                                     // elements of the set created in the previous step

To access elements in a set, use the system methods provided by Apex. For example:

1Set<Integer> s = new Set<Integer>(); // Define a new set
2s.add(1);                            // Add an element to the set
3System.assert(s.contains(1));        // Assert that the set contains an element
4s.remove(1);                         // Remove the element from the set

For more information, including a complete list of all supported set system methods, see Set Class.