From 28e2caefdc5bff31aeddc13e34b79bdbbb55ff15 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: MDLeom <2809763-curben@users.noreply.gitlab.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2020 02:20:32 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] post: dedup array of objects

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+---
+title: Remove duplicate objects in an array - JavaScript
+excerpt: When all objects have the same keys
+date: 2020-07-31
+tags:
+- javascript
+---
+
+Let's say you have an array of objects with duplicate entries:
+
+``` js
+const input = [
+	{ name: 'lorem', item: 'ipsum' },
+	{ name: 'per', item: 'doming' },
+	{ name: 'dolor', item: 'lorem' },
+	{ name: 'usu', item: 'pericula' },
+	{ name: 'per', item: 'doming' },
+	{ item: 'doming', name: 'per' },
+	{ name: 'dolor', item: 'lorem' },
+	{ name: 'quem', item: 'graece' },
+	{ item: 'graece', name: 'quem' },
+	{ name: 'sonet', item: 'labitur' }
+];
+```
+
+A usual way of removing the duplicate objects is to use [`JSON.stringify()`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify) and insert each entry into a [`Set`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Set#Remove_duplicate_elements_from_the_array) then convert back to array. This approach can work if the keys are in the same order, but notice that input has two objects with different order than the rest:
+
+{% codeblock lang:js mark:7,10 %}
+const input = [
+  { name: 'lorem', item: 'ipsum' },
+  { name: 'per', item: 'doming' },
+  { name: 'dolor', item: 'lorem' },
+  { name: 'usu', item: 'pericula' },
+  { name: 'per', item: 'doming' },
+	{ item: 'doming', name: 'per' },
+  { name: 'dolor', item: 'lorem' },
+  { name: 'quem', item: 'graece' },
+  { item: 'graece', name: 'quem' },
+  { name: 'sonet', item: 'labitur' }
+]
+{% endcodeblock %}
+
+In this case, we can use `Object.fromEntries()` and `Object.entries()` to deal with duplicates. This involves two processes:
+
+1. Convert an array of objects to an object.
+2. Convert the object back to an array of objects.
+
+The trick here lies with the first step because an object cannot have duplicate keys. Before we use `Object.fromEntries()`, we first remove the keys:
+
+``` js
+const stepOne = input.map(({ name, item }) => [name, item])
+console.log(stepOne)
+
+[
+  [ 'lorem', 'ipsum' ],
+  [ 'per', 'doming' ],
+  [ 'dolor', 'lorem' ],
+  [ 'usu', 'pericula' ],
+  [ 'per', 'doming' ],
+  [ 'per', 'doming' ],
+  [ 'dolor', 'lorem' ],
+  [ 'quem', 'graece' ],
+  [ 'quem', 'graece' ],
+  [ 'sonet', 'labitur' ]
+]
+```
+
+I'm using Object [destructure](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Destructuring_assignment) here:
+
+``` js
+input.map(({ name, item }) => [name, item])
+
+// is equivalent to
+input.map((element) => [element.name, element.item])
+```
+
+Then we pass `stepOne` to `Object.entries`:
+
+``` js
+const stepTwo = Object.entries(stepOne)
+console.log(stepTwo)
+
+{
+  lorem: 'ipsum',
+  per: 'doming',
+  dolor: 'lorem',
+  usu: 'pericula',
+  quem: 'graece',
+  sonet: 'labitur'
+}
+```
+
+Now we have a de-duplicated object. Then, we use `Object.entries()` to convert it to an array:
+
+``` js
+const stepThree = Object.entries(stepTwo)
+console.log(stepThree)
+
+[
+  [ 'lorem', 'ipsum' ],
+  [ 'per', 'doming' ],
+  [ 'dolor', 'lorem' ],
+  [ 'usu', 'pericula' ],
+  [ 'quem', 'graece' ],
+  [ 'sonet', 'labitur' ]
+]
+```
+
+Finally, we loop through each element to convert it back to object:
+
+``` js
+const stepFour = stepThree.map(([name, item]) => {
+  return { name, item }
+})
+
+console.log(stepFour)
+
+[
+  { name: 'lorem', item: 'ipsum' },
+  { name: 'per', item: 'doming' },
+  { name: 'dolor', item: 'lorem' },
+  { name: 'usu', item: 'pericula' },
+  { name: 'quem', item: 'graece' },
+  { name: 'sonet', item: 'labitur' }
+]
+```
+
+``` js
+const stepFour = stepThree.map(([name, item]) => {
+  return {
+    name,
+    item
+  }
+})
+
+// is equivalent to
+const stepFour = stepThree.map((element) => {
+  return {
+    name: element[0],
+    item: element[1]
+  }
+})
+```
+
+To put everything together:
+
+``` js
+// in one-line
+const output = Object.entries(Object.fromEntries(input.map(({ name, item }) => [name, item]))).map(([name, item]) => { return { name, item } })
+
+// in a function
+const dedup = (inArray) => {
+  return Object.entries(Object.fromEntries(input.map(({ name, item }) => {
+    return [name, item]
+  })))
+    .map(([name, item]) => {
+      return { name, item }
+    })
+}
+
+const output = dedup(input)
+```