Get all unique values in a JavaScript array (remov

Question

I have an array of numbers that I need to make sure are unique. I found the code snippet below on the internet and it works great until the array has a zero in it. I found this other script here on SO that looks almost exactly like it, but it doesn't fail.

So for the sake of helping me learn, can someone help me determine where the prototype script is going wrong?

Array.prototype.getUnique = function() {
 var o = {}, a = [], i, e;
 for (i = 0; e = this[i]; i++) {o[e] = 1};
 for (e in o) {a.push (e)};
 return a;
}

More answers from duplicate question:

• Remove Duplicates from JavaScript Array

Similar question:

• Get all values with more than one occurrence (i.e.: not unique) in an array

Answer 1

That's because 0 is a falsy value in JavaScript.

this[i] will be falsy if the value of the array is 0 or any other falsy value.

Answer 2

This will work.

function getUnique(a) {
  var b = [a[0]], i, j, tmp;
  for (i = 1; i < a.length; i++) {
    tmp = 1;
    for (j = 0; j < b.length; j++) {
      if (a[i] == b[j]) {
        tmp = 0;
        break;
      }
    }
    if (tmp) {
      b.push(a[i]);
    }
  }
  return b;
}

Answer 3

I have since found a nice method that uses jQuery

arr = $.grep(arr, function(v, k){
    return $.inArray(v ,arr) === k;
});

Note: This code was pulled from Paul Irish's duck punching post - I forgot to give credit :P

Answer 4

We can do this using ES6 sets:

var duplicatedArray = [1,2,3,4,5,1,1,1,2,3,4];
var uniqueArray = Array.from(new Set(duplicatedArray));

//The output will be

uniqueArray = [1,2,3,4,5];

Answer 5

You can also use jQuery

var a = [1,5,1,6,4,5,2,5,4,3,1,2,6,6,3,3,2,4];

// note: jQuery's filter params are opposite of javascript's native implementation :(
var unique = $.makeArray($(a).filter(function(i,itm){ 
    // note: 'index', not 'indexOf'
    return i == $(a).index(itm);
}));

// unique: [1, 5, 6, 4, 2, 3]

Originally answered at: jQuery function to get all unique elements from an array?

Answer 6

Building on other answers, here's another variant that takes an optional flag to choose a strategy (keep first occurrence or keep last):

Without extending Array.prototype

function unique(arr, keepLast) {
  return arr.filter(function (value, index, array) {
    return keepLast ? array.indexOf(value, index + 1) < 0 : array.indexOf(value) === index;
  });
};

// Usage
unique(['a', 1, 2, '1', 1, 3, 2, 6]); // -> ['a', 1, 2, '1', 3, 6]
unique(['a', 1, 2, '1', 1, 3, 2, 6], true); // -> ['a', '1', 1, 3, 2, 6]

Extending Array.prototype

Array.prototype.unique = function (keepLast) {
  return this.filter(function (value, index, array) {
    return keepLast ? array.indexOf(value, index + 1) < 0 : array.indexOf(value) === index;
  });
};

// Usage
['a', 1, 2, '1', 1, 3, 2, 6].unique(); // -> ['a', 1, 2, '1', 3, 6]
['a', 1, 2, '1', 1, 3, 2, 6].unique(true); // -> ['a', '1', 1, 3, 2, 6]