Remove duplicate string from Array

Question

I have the following dynamically generated arrays:

,<div id="layer0" style="left: 470px; top: 286px;">Some Text</div>
,<div id="layer0" style="font-size: 68px; left: 70px; top: 286px; ">SomeText</div>
,<div id="layer1" style="font-size: 18px; left: 60px; top: 286px; ">SomeText</div>
,<div id="layer2" style="font-size: 18px; left: 50px; top: 286px; ">SomeText</div>

The first 2 entries are not exactly duplicates but have the same id="layer0". The second one is different because it has a CSS font-size propriety.

How can I remove the first any from this array that has a duplicate id but may differ in the exact form?

The arrays are combined together trough:

var allcode = $.merge([oldarray],[newarray]) 

Where in oldarray are some duplicates I need to get rid of. Thank you.

Answer 1

I think you'd be ahead to more carefully combine the arrays, rather than mash them together and clean up later.

function matchId(htmlstring){
 var match = htmlstring.match( new RegExp(/id=\"([^\"]+)\"/i) ); 
 if (match && match[1]) {
 return match[1];
 }
 return '';
}
for (var j=0; j < oldarray.length; j++) {
 var exists = false;
 for (var k=0; k < newarray.length; k++) {
 var newId = matchId(newarray[k]);
 var oldId = matchId(oldarray[j]);
 if (newId == oldId) {
 // element already exists.
 exists=true;
 break;
 }
 }
 if (!exists) {
 newarray.push( oldarray[j] );
 }
}

• Matthew Flaschen: I agree with carefully combining. But I think it's an array of HTML strings, so some parsing is required before comparing id properties.
• Mircea: Thanx, in my code this duplicate all the #IDs. Please let me check it to see where I do it wrong.
• Mircea: I get some "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot call method 'match' of null". Any idea what may cause this?
• lincolnk: the first method assumes htmlstring is a valid string. you can add this line to the top of the match method: if(!htmlstring){return;}