466
votes

I need to check a JavaScript array to see if there are any duplicate values. What's the easiest way to do this? I just need to find what the duplicated values are - I don't actually need their indexes or how many times they are duplicated.

I know I can loop through the array and check all the other values for a match, but it seems like there should be an easier way.

Similar question:

30
There seems to be years of confusion about what this question asks. I needed to know what elements in the array were duplicated: "I just need to find what the duplicated values are". The correct answer should NOT remove duplicates from the array. That's the inverse of what I wanted: a list of the duplicates, not a list of unique elements.Scott Saunders
github.com/lodash/lodash/issues/4852#issuecomment-666366511 I would add this as an answer, but given the length of answers, it would never be seenlonewarrior556

30 Answers

331
votes

You could sort the array and then run through it and then see if the next (or previous) index is the same as the current. Assuming your sort algorithm is good, this should be less than O(n2):

const findDuplicates = (arr) => {
  let sorted_arr = arr.slice().sort(); // You can define the comparing function here. 
  // JS by default uses a crappy string compare.
  // (we use slice to clone the array so the
  // original array won't be modified)
  let results = [];
  for (let i = 0; i < sorted_arr.length - 1; i++) {
    if (sorted_arr[i + 1] == sorted_arr[i]) {
      results.push(sorted_arr[i]);
    }
  }
  return results;
}

let duplicatedArray = [9, 9, 111, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7];
console.log(`The duplicates in ${duplicatedArray} are ${findDuplicates(duplicatedArray)}`);

In case, if you are to return as a function for duplicates. This is for similar type of case.

Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/a/57532964/8119511

211
votes

If you want to elimate the duplicates, try this great solution:

function eliminateDuplicates(arr) {
  var i,
      len = arr.length,
      out = [],
      obj = {};

  for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
    obj[arr[i]] = 0;
  }
  for (i in obj) {
    out.push(i);
  }
  return out;
}

console.log(eliminateDuplicates([1,6,7,3,6,8,1,3,4,5,1,7,2,6]))

Source: http://dreaminginjavascript.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/eliminating-duplicates/

184
votes

This is my answer from the duplicate thread (!):

When writing this entry 2014 - all examples were for-loops or jQuery. Javascript has the perfect tools for this: sort, map and reduce.

Find duplicate items

var names = ['Mike', 'Matt', 'Nancy', 'Adam', 'Jenny', 'Nancy', 'Carl']

var uniq = names
  .map((name) => {
    return {
      count: 1,
      name: name
    }
  })
  .reduce((a, b) => {
    a[b.name] = (a[b.name] || 0) + b.count
    return a
  }, {})

var duplicates = Object.keys(uniq).filter((a) => uniq[a] > 1)

console.log(duplicates) // [ 'Nancy' ]

More functional syntax:

@Dmytro-Laptin pointed out some code that can be removed. This is a more compact version of the same code. Using some ES6 tricks and higher order functions:

const names = ['Mike', 'Matt', 'Nancy', 'Adam', 'Jenny', 'Nancy', 'Carl']

const count = names =>
  names.reduce((a, b) => ({ ...a,
    [b]: (a[b] || 0) + 1
  }), {}) // don't forget to initialize the accumulator

const duplicates = dict =>
  Object.keys(dict).filter((a) => dict[a] > 1)

console.log(count(names)) // { Mike: 1, Matt: 1, Nancy: 2, Adam: 1, Jenny: 1, Carl: 1 }
console.log(duplicates(count(names))) // [ 'Nancy' ]
73
votes

Find duplicate values in an array

This should be one of the shortest ways to actually find duplicate values in an array. As specifically asked for by the OP, this does not remove duplicates but finds them.

var input = [1, 2, 3, 1, 3, 1];

var duplicates = input.reduce(function(acc, el, i, arr) {
  if (arr.indexOf(el) !== i && acc.indexOf(el) < 0) acc.push(el); return acc;
}, []);

document.write(duplicates); // = 1,3 (actual array == [1, 3])

This doesn't need sorting or any third party framework. It also doesn't need manual loops. It works with every value indexOf() (or to be clearer: the strict comparision operator) supports.

Because of reduce() and indexOf() it needs at least IE 9.

65
votes

UPDATED: Short one-liner to get the duplicates:

[1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 4].filter((e, i, a) => a.indexOf(e) !== i) // [2, 4]

To get the array without duplicates simply invert the condition:

[1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 4].filter((e, i, a) => a.indexOf(e) === i) // [1, 2, 3, 4]

I simply did not think about filter() in my old answer below ;)


When all you need is to check that there are no duplicates as asked in this question you can use the every() method:

[1, 2, 3].every((e, i, a) => a.indexOf(e) === i) // true

[1, 2, 1].every((e, i, a) => a.indexOf(e) === i) // false

Note that every() doesn't work for IE 8 and below.

30
votes

You can add this function, or tweak it and add it to Javascript's Array prototype:

Array.prototype.unique = function () {
    var r = new Array();
    o:for(var i = 0, n = this.length; i < n; i++)
    {
        for(var x = 0, y = r.length; x < y; x++)
        {
            if(r[x]==this[i])
            {
                alert('this is a DUPE!');
                continue o;
            }
        }
        r[r.length] = this[i];
    }
    return r;
}

var arr = [1,2,2,3,3,4,5,6,2,3,7,8,5,9];
var unique = arr.unique();
alert(unique);
27
votes

UPDATED: The following uses an optimized combined strategy. It optimizes primitive lookups to benefit from hash O(1) lookup time (running unique on an array of primitives is O(n)). Object lookups are optimized by tagging objects with a unique id while iterating through so so identifying duplicate objects is also O(1) per item and O(n) for the whole list. The only exception is items that are frozen, but those are rare and a fallback is provided using an array and indexOf.

var unique = function(){
  var hasOwn = {}.hasOwnProperty,
      toString = {}.toString,
      uids = {};

  function uid(){
    var key = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2);
    return key in uids ? uid() : uids[key] = key;
  }

  function unique(array){
    var strings = {}, numbers = {}, others = {},
        tagged = [], failed = [],
        count = 0, i = array.length,
        item, type;

    var id = uid();

    while (i--) {
      item = array[i];
      type = typeof item;
      if (item == null || type !== 'object' && type !== 'function') {
        // primitive
        switch (type) {
          case 'string': strings[item] = true; break;
          case 'number': numbers[item] = true; break;
          default: others[item] = item; break;
        }
      } else {
        // object
        if (!hasOwn.call(item, id)) {
          try {
            item[id] = true;
            tagged[count++] = item;
          } catch (e){
            if (failed.indexOf(item) === -1)
              failed[failed.length] = item;
          }
        }
      }
    }

    // remove the tags
    while (count--)
      delete tagged[count][id];

    tagged = tagged.concat(failed);
    count = tagged.length;

    // append primitives to results
    for (i in strings)
      if (hasOwn.call(strings, i))
        tagged[count++] = i;

    for (i in numbers)
      if (hasOwn.call(numbers, i))
        tagged[count++] = +i;

    for (i in others)
      if (hasOwn.call(others, i))
        tagged[count++] = others[i];

    return tagged;
  }

  return unique;
}();

If you have ES6 Collections available, then there is a much simpler and significantly faster version. (shim for IE9+ and other browsers here: https://github.com/Benvie/ES6-Harmony-Collections-Shim)

function unique(array){
  var seen = new Set;
  return array.filter(function(item){
    if (!seen.has(item)) {
      seen.add(item);
      return true;
    }
  });
}
22
votes
var a = ["a","a","b","c","c"];

a.filter(function(value,index,self){ return (self.indexOf(value) !== index )})
22
votes

This should get you what you want, Just the duplicates.

function find_duplicates(arr) {
  var len=arr.length,
      out=[],
      counts={};

  for (var i=0;i<len;i++) {
    var item = arr[i];
    counts[item] = counts[item] >= 1 ? counts[item] + 1 : 1;
    if (counts[item] === 2) {
      out.push(item);
    }
  }

  return out;
}

find_duplicates(['one',2,3,4,4,4,5,6,7,7,7,'pig','one']); // -> ['one',4,7] in no particular order.
17
votes

Find non-unique values from 3 arrays (or more):

ES2015

//          🚩🚩  🚩    🚩             🚩 
var arr =  [1,2,2,3,3,4,5,6,2,3,7,8,5,22],
    arr2 = [1,2,511,12,50],
    arr3 = [22,0],
    merged,
    nonUnique;

// Combine all the arrays to a single one
merged = arr.concat(arr2, arr3)

// create a new (dirty) Array with only the non-unique items
nonUnique = merged.filter((item,i) => merged.includes(item, i+1))

// Cleanup - remove duplicate & empty items items 
nonUnique = [...new Set(nonUnique)]

console.log(nonUnique)

PRE-ES2015:

In the below example I chose to superimpose a unique method on top of the Array prototype, allowing access from everywhere and has more "declarative" syntax. I do not recommend this approach on large projects, since it might very well collide with another method with the same custom name.

Array.prototype.unique = function () {
    var arr = this.sort(), i=arr.length; // input must be sorted for this to work
    while(i--)
      arr[i] === arr[i-1] && arr.splice(i,1) // remove duplicate item
    return arr
}

Array.prototype.nonunique = function () {
    var arr = this.sort(), i=arr.length, res = []; // input must be sorted for this to work
    while(i--)
      arr[i] === arr[i-1] && (res.indexOf(arr[i]) == -1) && res.push(arr[i]) 
    return res
}

//          🚩🚩  🚩    🚩            🚩 
var arr =  [1,2,2,3,3,4,5,6,2,3,7,8,5,22],
    arr2 = [1,2,511,12,50],
    arr3 = [22,0],
    // merge all arrays & call custom Array Prototype - "unique"
    unique = arr.concat(arr2, arr3).unique(),
    nonunique = arr.concat(arr2, arr3).nonunique()

console.log(unique)     // [1,12,2,22,3,4,5,50,511,6,7,8]
console.log(nonunique)  // [1,12,2,22,3,4,5,50,511,6,7,8]
14
votes

using underscore.js

function hasDuplicate(arr){
    return (arr.length != _.uniq(arr).length);
}
8
votes

Here is mine simple and one line solution.

It searches not unique elements first, then makes found array unique with the use of Set.

So we have array of duplicates in the end.

var array = [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 3, 7, 8, 5, 22, 1, 2, 511, 12, 50, 22];

console.log([...new Set(
  array.filter((value, index, self) => self.indexOf(value) !== index))]
);
8
votes

This is my proposal (ES6):

let a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 4, 1, 5, 6]
let b = [...new Set(a.sort().filter((o, i) => o !== undefined && a[i + 1] !== undefined && o === a[i + 1]))]

// b is now [1, 2, 4]
7
votes

one liner simple way

var arr = [9,1,2,4,3,4,9]
console.log(arr.filter((ele,indx)=>indx!==arr.indexOf(ele))) //get the duplicates
console.log(arr.filter((ele,indx)=>indx===arr.indexOf(ele))) //remove the duplicates
7
votes

Here's the simplest solution I could think of:

const arr = [-1, 2, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 500, -1, 'a', 'a', 'a']

const filtered = arr.filter((el, index) => arr.indexOf(el) !== index)
// => filtered = [ 2, 2, 0, 0, -1, 'a', 'a' ]

const duplicates = [...new Set(filtered)]

console.log(duplicates)
// => [ 2, 0, -1, 'a' ]

That's it.

Note:

  1. It works with any numbers including 0, strings and negative numbers e.g. -1 - Related question: Get all unique values in a JavaScript array (remove duplicates)

  2. The original array arr is preserved (filter returns the new array instead of modifying the original)

  3. The filtered array contains all duplicates; it can also contain more than 1 same value (e.g. our filtered array here is [ 2, 2, 0, 0, -1, 'a', 'a' ])

  4. If you want to get only values that are duplicated (you don't want to have multiple duplicates with the same value) you can use [...new Set(filtered)] (ES6 has an object Set which can store only unique values)

Hope this helps.

6
votes
var a = [324,3,32,5,52,2100,1,20,2,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1].sort();
a.filter(function(v,i,o){return i&&v!==o[i-1]?v:0;});

or when added to the prototyp.chain of Array

//copy and paste: without error handling
Array.prototype.unique = 
   function(){return this.sort().filter(function(v,i,o){return i&&v!==o[i-1]?v:0;});}

See here: https://gist.github.com/1305056

6
votes

Fast and elegant way using es6 object destructuring and reduce

It runs in O(n) (1 iteration over the array) and doesn't repeat values that appear more than 2 times

const arr = ['hi', 'hi', 'hi', 'bye', 'bye', 'asd']
const {
  dup
} = arr.reduce(
  (acc, curr) => {
    acc.items[curr] = acc.items[curr] ? acc.items[curr] += 1 : 1
    if (acc.items[curr] === 2) acc.dup.push(curr)
    return acc
  }, {
    items: {},
    dup: []
  },
)

console.log(dup)
// ['hi', 'bye']
6
votes

Shortest vanilla JS:

[1,1,2,2,2,3].filter((v,i,a) => a.indexOf(v) !== i) // [1, 2, 2]
6
votes

You can use filter method and indexOf() to get all the duplicate values

function duplicate(arr) {
    return duplicateArray = arr.filter((item, index) => arr.indexOf(item) !== index) 
}

arr.indexOf(item) will always return the first index at which a given element can be found

4
votes

Here is a very light and easy way:

var codes = dc_1.split(',');
var i = codes.length;
while (i--) {
  if (codes.indexOf(codes[i]) != i) {
    codes.splice(i,1);
  }
}
4
votes

With ES6 (or using Babel or Typescipt) you can simply do:

var duplicates = myArray.filter(i => myArray.filter(ii => ii === i).length > 1);

https://es6console.com/j58euhbt/

4
votes

Simple code with ES6 syntax (return sorted array of duplicates):

let duplicates = a => {d=[]; a.sort((a,b) => a-b).reduce((a,b)=>{a==b&&!d.includes(a)&&d.push(a); return b}); return d};

How to use:

duplicates([1,2,3,10,10,2,3,3,10]);
4
votes

I have just figured out a simple way to achieve this using an Array filter

    var list = [9, 9, 111, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7];
    
    // Filter 1: to find all duplicates elements
    var duplicates = list.filter(function(value,index,self) {
       return self.indexOf(value) !== self.lastIndexOf(value) && self.indexOf(value) === index;
    });
    
    console.log(duplicates);
4
votes

This answer might also be helpful, it leverages js reduce operator/method to remove duplicates from array.

const result = [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3].reduce((x, y) => x.includes(y) ? x : [...x, y], []);

console.log(result);
3
votes

The following function (a variation of the eliminateDuplicates function already mentioned) seems to do the trick, returning test2,1,7,5 for the input ["test", "test2", "test2", 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 10, 22, 43, 1, 5, 8]

Note that the problem is stranger in JavaScript than in most other languages, because a JavaScript array can hold just about anything. Note that solutions that use sorting might need to provide an appropriate sorting function--I haven't tried that route yet.

This particular implementation works for (at least) strings and numbers.

function findDuplicates(arr) {
    var i,
        len=arr.length,
        out=[],
        obj={};

    for (i=0;i<len;i++) {
        if (obj[arr[i]] != null) {
            if (!obj[arr[i]]) {
                out.push(arr[i]);
                obj[arr[i]] = 1;
            }
        } else {
            obj[arr[i]] = 0;            
        }
    }
    return out;
}
3
votes

ES5 only (i.e., it needs a filter() polyfill for IE8 and below):

var arrayToFilter = [ 4, 5, 5, 5, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3 ];

arrayToFilter.
    sort().
    filter( function(me,i,arr){
       return (i===0) || ( me !== arr[i-1] );
    });
3
votes

var arr = [2, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 2, 5];

function returnDuplicates(arr) {
  return arr.reduce(function(dupes, val, i) {
    if (arr.indexOf(val) !== i && dupes.indexOf(val) === -1) {
      dupes.push(val);
    }
    return dupes;
  }, []);
}

alert(returnDuplicates(arr));

This function avoids the sorting step and uses the reduce() method to push duplicates to a new array if it doesn't already exist in it.

3
votes

This is probably one of the fastest way to remove permanently the duplicates from an array 10x times faster than the most functions here.& 78x faster in safari

function toUnique(a,b,c){//array,placeholder,placeholder
 b=a.length;
 while(c=--b)while(c--)a[b]!==a[c]||a.splice(c,1)
}
var array=[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,1,2,1];
toUnique(array);
console.log(array);
  1. Test: http://jsperf.com/wgu
  2. Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/46S7g/
  3. More: https://stackoverflow.com/a/25082874/2450730

if you can't read the code above ask, read a javascript book or here are some explainations about shorter code. https://stackoverflow.com/a/21353032/2450730

EDIT As stated in the comments this function does return an array with uniques, the question however asks to find the duplicates. in that case a simple modification to this function allows to push the duplicates into an array, then using the previous function toUnique removes the duplicates of the duplicates.

function theDuplicates(a,b,c,d){//array,placeholder,placeholder
 b=a.length,d=[];
 while(c=--b)while(c--)a[b]!==a[c]||d.push(a.splice(c,1))
}
var array=[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,1,2,1];

toUnique(theDuplicates(array));
3
votes

Using "includes" to test if the element already exists.

var arr = [1, 1, 4, 5, 5], darr = [], duplicates = [];

for(var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++){
  if(darr.includes(arr[i]) && !duplicates.includes(arr[i]))
    duplicates.push(arr[i])
  else
    darr.push(arr[i]);
}

console.log(duplicates);
<h3>Array with duplicates</h3>
<p>[1, 1, 4, 5, 5]</p>
<h3>Array with distinct elements</h3>
<p>[1, 4, 5]</p>
<h3>duplicate values are</h3>
<p>[1, 5]</p>
3
votes

ES6 offers the Set data structure which is basically an array that doesn't accept duplicates. With the Set data structure, there's a very easy way to find duplicates in an array (using only one loop).

Here's my code

function findDuplicate(arr) {
var set = new Set();
var duplicates = new Set();
  for (let i = 0; i< arr.length; i++) {
     var size = set.size;
     set.add(arr[i]);
     if (set.size === size) {
         duplicates.add(arr[i]);
     }
  }
 return duplicates;
}