How to merge two arrays in JavaScript and de-duplicate items

Question

I have two JavaScript arrays:

var array1 = ["Vijendra","Singh"];
var array2 = ["Singh", "Shakya"];

I want the output to be:

var array3 = ["Vijendra","Singh","Shakya"];

The output array should have repeated words removed.

How do I merge two arrays in JavaScript so that I get only the unique items from each array in the same order they were inserted into the original arrays?

Answer 1

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;
    }
});