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

This is fast, collates any number of arrays, and works with both numbers and strings.

function collate(a){ // Pass an array of arrays to collate into one array
    var h = { n: {}, s: {} };
    for (var i=0; i < a.length; i++) for (var j=0; j < a[i].length; j++)
        (typeof a[i][j] === "number" ? h.n[a[i][j]] = true : h.s[a[i][j]] = true);
    var b = Object.keys(h.n);
    for (var i=0; i< b.length; i++)
        b[i]=Number(b[i]);
    return b.concat(Object.keys(h.s));
}

> a = [ [1,2,3], [3,4,5], [1,5,6], ["spoon", "fork", "5"] ]
> collate( a )

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, "5", "spoon", "fork"]

If you don't need to distinguish between 5 and "5", then

function collate(a){
    var h = {};
    for (i=0; i < a.length; i++) for (var j=0; j < a[i].length; j++)
        h[a[i][j]] = typeof a[i][j] === "number";
    for (i=0, b=Object.keys(h); i< b.length; i++)
        if (h[b[i]])
            b[i]=Number(b[i]);
    return b;
}
[1, 2, 3, 4, "5", 6, "spoon", "fork"]

will do.

And if you don't mind (or would prefer) all values ending up as strings anyway then just this:

function collate(a){
    var h = {};
    for (var i=0; i < a.length; i++)
        for (var j=0; j < a[i].length; j++)
            h[a[i][j]] = true;
    return Object.keys(h)
}
["1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "spoon", "fork"]

If you don't actually need an array, but just want to collect the unique values and iterate over them, then (in most browsers (and node.js)):

h = new Map();
for (i=0; i < a.length; i++)
    for (var j=0; j < a[i].length; j++)
        h.set(a[i][j]);

It might be preferable.

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