Remove duplicate objects from an array using javascript

Question

I am trying to figure out an efficient way to remove objects that are duplicates from an array and looking for the most efficient answer. I looked around the internet everyt

Answer 1

Below is Henrique Feijo's answer with ample explanation and an example that you can cut and paste:

Goal: Convert an array of objects that contains duplicate objects (like this one)...

[
    {
        "id": 10620,
        "name": "Things to Print"
    },
    {
        "id": 10620,
        "name": "Things to Print"
    },
    {
        "id": 4334,
        "name": "Interesting"
    }
]

... Into an array of objects without duplicate objects (like this one):

[
    {
        "id": 10620,
        "name": "Things to Print"
    },
    {
        "id": 4334,
        "name": "Interesting"
    }
]

Explanation provided in the comments:

    var allContent = [{
      "id": 10620,
      "name": "Things to Print"
    }, {
      "id": 10620,
      "name": "Things to Print"
    }, {
      "id": 4334,
      "name": "Interesting"
    }]

     //Put Objects Into As Associative Array. Each key consists of a composite value generated by each set of values from the objects in allContent.
    var noDupeObj = {} //Create an associative array. It will not accept duplicate keys.
    for (i = 0, n = allContent.length; i < n; i++) {
      var item = allContent[i]; //Store each object as a variable. This helps with clarity in the next line.
      noDupeObj[item.id + "|" + item.name] = item; //This is the critical step.
      //Here, you create an object within the associative array that has a key composed of the two values from the original object. 
      // Use a delimiter to not have foo+bar handled like fo+obar
      //Since the associative array will not allow duplicate keys, and the keys are determined by the content, then all duplicate content are removed. 
      //The value assigned to each key is the original object which is along for the ride and used to reconstruct the list in the next step.
    }

     //Recontructs the list with only the unique objects left in the doDupeObj associative array
    var i = 0;
    var nonDuplicatedArray = [];
    for (var item in noDupeObj) {
      nonDuplicatedArray[i++] = noDupeObj[item]; //Populate the array with the values from the noDupeObj.
    }

    console.log(nonDuplicatedArray)

Answer 2

Here is a solution that works for me.

Helper functions:

// sorts an array of objects according to one field
// call like this: sortObjArray(myArray, "name" );
// it will modify the input array
sortObjArray = function(arr, field) {
    arr.sort(
        function compare(a,b) {
            if (a[field] < b[field])
                return -1;
            if (a[field] > b[field])
                return 1;
            return 0;
        }
    );
}

// call like this: uniqueDishes = removeDuplicatesFromObjArray(dishes, "dishName");
// it will NOT modify the input array
// input array MUST be sorted by the same field (asc or desc doesn't matter)
removeDuplicatesFromObjArray = function(arr, field) {
    var u = [];
    arr.reduce(function (a, b) {
        if (a[field] !== b[field]) u.push(b);
        return b;
    }, []);
    return u;
}

and then simply call:

        sortObjArray(dishes, "name");
        dishes = removeDuplicatesFromObjArray(dishes, "name");

Answer 3

I use this function. its not doing any sorting, but produces result. Cant say about performance as never measure it.

var unique = function(a){
    var seen = [], result = [];
    for(var len = a.length, i = len-1; i >= 0; i--){
        if(!seen[a[i]]){
            seen[a[i]] = true;
            result.push(a[i]);
        }
    }
    return result;
}

var ar = [1,2,3,1,1,1,1,1,"", "","","", "a", "b"]; console.log(unique(ar));// this will produce [1,2,3,"", "a", "b"] all unique elements.