javascript - How to use underscore's "intersection" on objects?

Question

_.intersection([], [])

only works with primitive types, right?

It doesn't work with objects. How can I make it work with objects (maybe by checking the "Id" field)?

var a = [ {'id': 1, 'name': 'jake' }, {'id':4, 'name': 'jenny'} ]
var b = [ {'id': 1, 'name': 'jake' }, {'id': 9, 'name': 'nick'} ]

In this example, the result should be:

_.intersection(a, b);

[ {'id': 1, 'name': 'jake' } ];

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8672383/how-to-use-underscores-intersection-on-objects

Answer 1

Here is an alternative algorithm that should be flexible and perform better. One of those improvements is that you can specify your own comparison function so in your case you can just compare the id if it's a unique identifier.

function intersectionObjects2(a, b, areEqualFunction) {
    var results = [];

    for(var i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
        var aElement = a[i];
        var existsInB = _.any(b, function(bElement) { return areEqualFunction(bElement, aElement); });

        if(existsInB) {
            results.push(aElement);
        }
    }

    return results;
}

function intersectionObjects() {
    var results = arguments[0];
    var lastArgument = arguments[arguments.length - 1];
    var arrayCount = arguments.length;
    var areEqualFunction = _.isEqual;

    if(typeof lastArgument === "function") {
        areEqualFunction = lastArgument;
        arrayCount--;
    }

    for(var i = 1; i < arrayCount ; i++) {
        var array = arguments[i];
        results = intersectionObjects2(results, array, areEqualFunction);
        if(results.length === 0) break;
    }

    return results;
}

You can use it like this:

var a = [ { id: 1, name: 'jake' }, { id: 4, name: 'jenny'} ];
var b = [ { id: 1, name: 'jake' }, { id: 9, name: 'nick'} ];
var c = [ { id: 1, name: 'jake' }, { id: 4, name: 'jenny'}, { id: 9, name: 'nick'} ];

var result = intersectionObjects(a, b, c, function(item1, item2) {
    return item1.id === item2.id;
});

Or you can leave out the function and it will use underscores _.isEqual() function, like so:

var result = intersectionObjects(a, b, c);

You can find it on jsFiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/luisperezphd/43vksdn6/