How to quickly get the union of two Sets in JavaScript

Tari Ibaba
Last updated on August 30, 2023
How to quickly get the union of two Sets in JavaScript

To get the union of two Sets in JavaScript, convert the sets to arrays and merge them, then create a Set from the merged array, i.e., new Set([...set1, ...set2]).

For example:

function getUnion(set1, set2) {
  return new Set([...arr1, ...arr2]);
}

const set1 = new Set([1, 2, 3, 4]);
const set2 = new Set([3, 4, 5, 6]);

const union = getUnion(set1, set2);

console.log(union); // Set(6) { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }

Set() constructor

The Set() constructor creates a new Set object from an iterable like an array. As a Set can only contain unique values, it removes any possible duplicates that may be in the array it receives.

const set = new Set([1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4]);
console.log(set); // Set(4) [1, 2, 3, 4]

Spread syntax (...)

The array we pass to Set() is a merge of two arrays that represent the two Sets. The spread syntax (...) unpacks the value of each Set into the array.

const array1 = [10, 20, 30];
const array2 = [40, 50, 60];

const mergedArray = [...array1, ...array2];

console.log(mergedArray);

Use Array concat() to merge arrays

If you like, you can use the Array concat() method to join the arrays. Here the spread syntax only converts the Sets to arrays.

function getUnion(set1, set2) {
  // Using Array concat() in place of spread syntax
  return new Set([...set1].concat([...set2]));
}

const set1 = new Set([1, 2, 3, 4]);
const set2 = new Set([3, 4, 5, 6]);

const union = getUnion(set1, set2);

console.log(union); // Set(6) { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }

Use Array from() to convert Set to array

You can use the Array from() method in place of the spread syntax (...) to convert the Sets to arrays before merging them:

function getUnion(set1, set2) {
  // Using Array concat() in place of spread syntax
  return new Set(Array.from(set1).concat(Array.from(arr2));
}

const set1 = new Set([1, 2, 3, 4]);
const set2 = new Set([3, 4, 5, 6]);

const union = getUnion(set1, set2);

console.log(union); // Set(6) { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }

We can use a similar approach to easily get the union of two arrays in JavaScript.

Get union of two arrays in JavaScript

To get the union of two arrays in JavaScript, merge the arrays, create a new Set object from the merged result to remove the duplicates, then convert it back to an array, i.e., Array.from(new Set([...arr1, ...arr2])).

For example:

function getUnion(arr1, arr2) {
  return Array.from(new Set([...arr1, ...arr2]));
}

const array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
const array2 = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8];

const union = getUnion(array1, array2); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
console.log(union);

Key takeaways

  • To get the union of two Sets in JavaScript, convert the Sets to arrays, merge them, and convert the merged array back to a Set object, i.e., new Set([...set1, ...set2]).
  • You can get the union of two arrays in JavaScript in a similar way, i.e., [...new Set([...arr1, ...arr2])].
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