Avoiding duplicates in JTree

Question

I am trying to avoid duplicates in a JTree and don't think I should have to loop through all the objects and compare them for every new entry. I would like find a way to compare the label of an existing object with the one I'm about to add to the tree.
I'm trying to use getIndexOfChild method instead of looping. The method as it is now is doesn't work. I've tried type casting and toString, but haven't found the correct combo.
Thanks....
public void refreshHostTree(JTree mytree, ArrayList myhostnodes) {
// duplicates have already been accounted for
// when the host list was built.
DefaultTreeModel mymodel = (DefaultTreeModel)mytree.getModel();
Object myroot = mymodel.getRoot();
System.out.println("root is "+myroot);
               for (int i=0; i < myhostnodes.size(); i++) {                      
// update with new node
DefaultMutableTreeNode curnode = new DefaultMutableTreeNode(myhostnodes.get(i));
if((mymodel.getIndexOfChild(myroot,curnode) < 0 )) {
System.out.println("object to add is "+curnode);
mymodel.insertNodeInto(curnode,(DefaultMutableTreeNode)myroot,0);
}

Answer 1

I looked through many posts before posting this question. Could you send me a reference or what u searched on?
As for your questions......
1. Can unique nodes be duplicated in other nodes of the tree?
- yes and no. No for the tree I'm working on now, yes for the tree on the next tabbedpane I'm populating.
1.a If yes, can a node be a child of itself?
- no. I don't want it to be at least...
2. How many nodes total in the tree?
- for my project, maximum of 500. Probably will put them in a paged scroll pane.
3. How many average children does a node have?
- depends on how young the sampled group started having children????
3.a What is the maximum number of children a node can have?
- I'm sure my 500 is below the limit, but only testing will tell.
4. Once the tree is built is it static?
- no. It doesn't have to be. There are good examples of this.
5. How slow is too slow?
- real time is a relative term! I'm trying to be more efficient with doing it this way instead of looping through all the nodes of the tree. I'm also hard headed and think that there should be an easy way to do this.
Thanks