Merge two or more arrays of JSON objects into one array, preserving uniqueness

Question

I have two arrays of JSON objects, I am trying to merge them into one array, by date, without creating any duplicates. jQuery's extend() function does not seem to do the trick for me. I realize it's possible to use nested $.each statements, but the data in focus here can become very large, so I would rather avoid O(Log N * Log M)...

[  
   {  
      "date":"2016-03-16",
      "timesOff":[
         "18:00 - 20:00",
         "20:00 - 22:00"
      ],
      "appointments":[  
         {  
            "projectId":"adbc5010-ea7d-4993-b442-24cce609c3f8",
            "customerName":"Johnny",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"60e0bed4-141b-46f0-91cd-f570fb1f886d",
            "customerName":"Jimmy",
            "timeSlot":"14:00 - 16:00",
            "startTime":""
         }
      ]
   },
   {  
      "date":"2016-03-02",
      "timesOff":[
         "10:00 - 12:00",
         "14:00 - 16:00"
      ],
      "appointments":[  
         {  
            "projectId":"041b6496-4905-42b3-8057-87dc2b8c482a",
            "customerName":"Billy",
            "timeSlot":"08:00 - 10:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"f6e0743a-e714-4c92-be63-a14898ec1e4d",
            "customerName":"Bob",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         }
      ]
   }
]

[
   {  
      "date":"2016-03-16",
      "timesOff":[  
         "14:00 - 16:00",
         "18:00 - 20:00"
      ],
      "appointments":[  
         {  
            "projectId":"041b6496-4905-42b3-8057-87dc2b8c482a",
            "customerName":"Billy",
            "timeSlot":"08:00 - 10:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"f6e0743a-e714-4c92-be63-a14898ec1e4d",
            "customerName":"Bob",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         }
      ]
   },
   {  
      "date":"2016-03-02",
      "timesOff":[  
         "18:00 - 20:00",
         "20:00 - 22:00"
      ],
      "appointments":[  
         {  
            "projectId":"041b6496-4905-42b3-8057-87dc2b8c482a",
            "customerName":"Billy",
            "timeSlot":"08:00 - 10:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"f6e0743a-e714-4c92-be63-a14898ec1e4d",
            "customerName":"Bob",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         }
      ]
   }
]

These should be merged like so:

[  
   {  
      "date":"2016-03-16",
      "timesOff":[
         "14:00 - 16:00",
         "18:00 - 20:00",
         "20:00 - 22:00"
      ],
      "appointments":[  
         {  
            "projectId":"041b6496-4905-42b3-8057-87dc2b8c482a",
            "customerName":"Billy",
            "timeSlot":"08:00 - 10:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"f6e0743a-e714-4c92-be63-a14898ec1e4d",
            "customerName":"Bob",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"adbc5010-ea7d-4993-b442-24cce609c3f8",
            "customerName":"Johnny",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"60e0bed4-141b-46f0-91cd-f570fb1f886d",
            "customerName":"Jimmy",
            "timeSlot":"14:00 - 16:00",
            "startTime":""
         }
      ]
   },
   {  
      "date":"2016-03-02",
      "timesOff":[
         "10:00 - 12:00",
         "14:00 - 16:00",
         "20:00 - 22:00"
      ],
      "appointments":[  
         {  
            "projectId":"041b6496-4905-42b3-8057-87dc2b8c482a",
            "customerName":"Billy",
            "timeSlot":"08:00 - 10:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"f6e0743a-e714-4c92-be63-a14898ec1e4d",
            "customerName":"Bob",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"041b6496-4905-42b3-8057-87dc2b8c482a",
            "customerName":"Billy",
            "timeSlot":"08:00 - 10:00",
            "startTime":""
         },
         {  
            "projectId":"f6e0743a-e714-4c92-be63-a14898ec1e4d",
            "customerName":"Bob",
            "timeSlot":"10:00 - 12:00",
            "startTime":""
         }
      ]
   }
]

My first thought of approach was to run $.each on both of the arrays separately at the same time, then assign values to temporary variables (i.e. x[value.date] = value) and then run $.extend against both of them. This works, however it returns an array like ["2016-03-02":Object, "2016-03-16":Object], which will not work for the purpose of the application. How can I merge these without the "Something":Object?

Thanks in advance.

if the dates are the same, will everything else be the same, or does the testing need to be deeper? This is a task for pure JS, jquery is overkill I suspect — Simon H
– Simon H, Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 8:48
Dates will not always be the same, in fact there is a guarantee that additional dates beyond the scope of this array will be in focus. The bottomline function of this is to act as a scheduler, preserving info reserved from get requests, then storing them into this array to prevent additional get requests. The resulting array can become huge. — Drakken Saer
– Drakken Saer, Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 8:50

Marcos Pérez Gude · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-17 08:52:15Z

1

I think you need two phpjs tools.

http://phpjs.org/functions/array_merge/ (merge arrays)

OR

http://phpjs.org/functions/array_merge_recursive (merge arrays with recursive mode, I think it's your requirement)

AND

http://phpjs.org/functions/array_unique (delete duplicated and empty elements in array)

Combine merge + unique and you'll obtain the expected results. Just copy and paste the function definition and then use them

answered Feb 17, 2016 at 8:52

Marcos Pérez Gude

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5 Comments

Drakken Saer Over a year ago

Interesting... I've never seen this before, but it does seem to work in the way I need it to. Are there any built-in jQuery methods to do the same thing that you know of?

Drakken Saer Over a year ago

I may have spoken too soon; The array_unique method returns only one JSON object... "Object {0: Object}"

Marcos Pérez Gude Over a year ago

The PHPJS library is a collection of pure-javascript functions that imitates the powerfull of the PHP language, but in javascript. I don't know if this exists in jquery, but I guess not.

Marcos Pérez Gude Over a year ago

Oh my god. So you can avoid it making the array_unique inside the array_merge_recursive. But I don't know how right now, I will go to research about it.

Drakken Saer Over a year ago

I appreciate your help, I will look over the functions on my end and see what I can do as well. This is the first time I've seen PHP JS, but it looks very interesting, thanks for letting me know about this nifty thing.

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