How to merge two arrays in JavaScript and de-duplicate items
To just merge the arrays (without removing duplicates)
ES5 version use Array.concat
:
var array1 = ["Vijendra", "Singh"];
var array2 = ["Singh", "Shakya"];
console.log(array1.concat(array2));
ES6 version use destructuring
const array1 = ["Vijendra","Singh"];
const array2 = ["Singh", "Shakya"];
const array3 = [...array1, ...array2];
Since there is no 'built in' way to remove duplicates (ECMA-262 actually has Array.forEach
which would be great for this), we have to do it manually:
Array.prototype.unique = function() {
var a = this.concat();
for(var i=0; i<a.length; ++i) {
for(var j=i+1; j<a.length; ++j) {
if(a[i] === a[j])
a.splice(j--, 1);
}
}
return a;
};
Then, to use it:
var array1 = ["Vijendra","Singh"];
var array2 = ["Singh", "Shakya"];
// Merges both arrays and gets unique items
var array3 = array1.concat(array2).unique();
This will also preserve the order of the arrays (i.e, no sorting needed).
Since many people are annoyed about prototype augmentation of Array.prototype
and for in
loops, here is a less invasive way to use it:
function arrayUnique(array) {
var a = array.concat();
for(var i=0; i<a.length; ++i) {
for(var j=i+1; j<a.length; ++j) {
if(a[i] === a[j])
a.splice(j--, 1);
}
}
return a;
}
var array1 = ["Vijendra","Singh"];
var array2 = ["Singh", "Shakya"];
// Merges both arrays and gets unique items
var array3 = arrayUnique(array1.concat(array2));
For those who are fortunate enough to work with browsers where ES5 is available, you can use Object.defineProperty
like this:
Object.defineProperty(Array.prototype, 'unique', {
enumerable: false,
configurable: false,
writable: false,
value: function() {
var a = this.concat();
for(var i=0; i<a.length; ++i) {
for(var j=i+1; j<a.length; ++j) {
if(a[i] === a[j])
a.splice(j--, 1);
}
}
return a;
}
});
With Underscore.js or Lo-Dash you can do:
console.log(_.union([1, 2, 3], [101, 2, 1, 10], [2, 1]));
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.15/lodash.min.js"></script>
http://underscorejs.org/#union
http://lodash.com/docs#union
First concatenate the two arrays, next filter out only the unique items:
var a = [1, 2, 3], b = [101, 2, 1, 10]
var c = a.concat(b)
var d = c.filter((item, pos) => c.indexOf(item) === pos)
console.log(d) // d is [1, 2, 3, 101, 10]
Edit
As suggested a more performance wise solution would be to filter out the unique items in b
before concatenating with a
:
var a = [1, 2, 3], b = [101, 2, 1, 10]
var c = a.concat(b.filter((item) => a.indexOf(item) < 0))
console.log(c) // c is [1, 2, 3, 101, 10]
[...array1,...array2] // => don't remove duplication
OR
[...new Set([...array1 ,...array2])]; // => remove duplication