find union
of two arrays
[ Set | spread syntax ]

Union of two arrays

Write a function that takes two arrays and returns a new array with their union.


The union of two arrays combines the elements of both arrays into a single array without duplicates.

union venn-diagram image

A → first array

B → second array


Example ...

Combine the elements of both arrays into a single array without duplicates.

[1, 2, 3, 4] first array

[3, 4, 5, 6] second array

The function will return a new array [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] → elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are returned without duplicates.

The original arrays remain unchanged.

Arrays are used to store multiple values in a single variable.

Each value is called an element, and each element has a numeric position in the array, known as its index.

Arrays are zero-indexed, meaning the first element is at index 0, the second at index 1, and so on.

Arrays can contain any data type, including numbers, strings, and objects.

const arr1 = [2, 4, 6]; array

arr1[0]; element at index 0 → 2

arr1[1]; element at index 1 → 4

arr1[2]; element at index 2 → 6

arr1[3]; element at index 3 → undefined index not found


Strings are a sequence of zero or more characters written inside quotes used to represent text.

Strings may consist of letters, numbers, symbols, words, or sentences.

Strings are immutable, they cannot be changed.

Each character in a string has an index.

The first character will be index 0 the second character will be index 1 and so on.

There are two ways to access an individual character in a string.

charAt() method

const str1 = "abc"; string

str1.charAt(0); character at index 0 → "a"

str1.charAt(1); character at index 1 → "b"

str1.charAt(2); character at index 2 → "c"

str1.charAt(3); character at index 3 → "" index not found

Alternatively use at() or slice() methods

bracket notation []

const str2 = "abc"; string

str2[0]; character at index 0 → "a"

str2[1]; character at index 1 → "b"

str2[2]; character at index 2 → "c"

str2[3]; character at index 3 → undefined index not found


Numbers are used to represent both integer and floating-point values.

Numbers are most commonly expressed in literal forms like 255 or 3.14159 ↴

let num1 = 5; → number

let num2 = 2.5; → number

let num3 = num1 + num2;

console.log(num3); returns ↴

7.5 → number


Find the union of two arrays using ↴

Set Object → collection of unique values.

spread syntax... → allows two or more arrays to be merged into one array.


Set Object is a collection of unique values.

Each value can only occur once, each value is unique.

const mySet = new Set();

console.log(mySet); returns ↴

Set(0) {size: 0} → empty Set

To add values to the Set we can use the add() method.

mySet.add("a");

mySet.add("b");

mySet.add("c");

console.log(mySet); returns ↴

Set(3) {"a", "b", "c"} → values added

Try to add a duplicate value.

mySet.add("c"); character "c" is already in mySet

console.log(mySet); returns ↴

Set(3) {"a", "b", "c"} → no change

To determine if mySet has an element present we can use the has() method.

mySet.has("a"); true

mySet.has("d"); false


spread syntax ... unpacks the elements of an iterable object, like arrays.

It allows two or more arrays to be merged into one array.

const arr2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

const arr3 = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8];

const arr4 = [...arr2, ...arr3];

console.log(arr4); returns ↴

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] → values are not unique

Convert an array to a Set.

const arr5 = [1, 2, 3, 4]; array

const setD = new Set(arr5);

console.log(setD); returns ↴

{1, 2, 3, 4} → set

Use spread syntax to convert a Set to an array.

const arr6 = [...setD];

console.log(arr6); returns ↴

[1, 2, 3, 4] → array


Initialize the two input arrays to find their union.

first array ↴

const array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; → user input

second array ↴

const array2 = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8]; → user input


Define a function findUnion() to find the union of two arrays.

function findUnion(arr1, arr2) {}

The function takes two arrays as input arr1, arr2 and returns a new array with their union. The original arrays remain unchanged.

Each input array may contain duplicates. Duplicates will be removed inside the function.

spread syntax ... allows two or more arrays to be merged into one array.

Set constructor is used to create a new Set from the input arrays arr1, arr2

new Set([...arr1, ...arr2]) Set created from the merged input arrays.

Each element will be unique.

The spread syntax is used again to convert the Set back into an array.

[...new Set([...arr1, ...arr2])] Array created from the Set.

The array is returned with all the unique elements that are present in both arrays.

If there is no union between the two arrays then an empty array is returned.

Create a new Set from the merged arrays to ensure uniqueness.

const union = [...new Set([...arr1, ...arr2])] union

Return the array of unique values.

return union


Call the function with ↴

findUnion(array1, array2);


Find union of two arrays.

const array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

const array2 = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8];

function findUnion(arr1, arr2) {

const union = [...new Set([...arr1, ...arr2])];

return union;

}

call function

findUnion(array1, array2); returns ↴

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

Find Union of two arrays