var _ = require('lodash'); /** Merge two lists, removing duplicates, and doing everything possible to * maintain the order of the two lists. * * This function guarantees that the order of list1 is preserved (that is, if x * comes before y in list1, x comes before y in the returned list) and tries * not to undo the order of list2, though sometimes it is unavoidable. * * For example, if we have list1 = [1, 2, 4] and list2 = [2, 1, 3, 4], then the * merged list would be [1, 2, 3, 4], since that preserves the order of list1 * while doing the best job possible of preserving the order of list2. * * A case like list1 = [1, 3], list2 = [3, 2, 1] is more complicated. It's not * clear what the best merged list is, but it's probably either [2, 1, 3] or * [1, 3, 2]. * * In general, it's not totally clear what the "best" merged list is, but there * are some basic properties that anyone would expect: * - Since the order of list1 is preserved, the merged list will look like * list1 with the elements exclusive to list2 inserted in betweeen * - If list2[i] is not in list1, and it is possible to insert list2[i] into * list1 without contradicting the order of list2, then it should be * inserted in such a way * * This is very slow, crossing the 100ms mark with lists around 150 in length, * and growing at a rate of * O(list2.length*list2.length*(list1.length + list2.length)) from there. * * @param {Array<*>} list1 * @param {Array<*>} list2 * @return {Array<*>} A list containing all the elements of list1 and list2, * with duplicates removed, the order of list1 preserved, and the order of * list2 partially preserved */ module.exports = function(list1, list2) { /* This is going to get mathematical. As noted above, the merged list will be * a copy of list1 with the items exclusive to list2 inserted in between. But * additionally, we want to preserve the order of list2 as much as possible. * In more formal terms, for all x and y from list2, we want to minimize the * number of times that x is before y in the merged list but after y in list2. * We call each such time an "inversion", after the term in discrete math. * * We are going to take a greedy approach to this: * * merged_list = a copy of list1 * for(i = 0; i < list2.length; i++) * if(list2[i] is not in list1) * insert list2[i] into merged_list in the earliest place that creates the * minimum number of inversions * return merged_list * * It can be proven that this gives you the two properties mentioned in the * header comment above */ var merged = list1.slice(); // The merged list to return var mergedIndexes = _.invert(merged); for (var i = 0; i < list2.length; i++) { var elem = list2[i]; if (mergedIndexes[elem] === undefined) { // Count the inversions for every possible insertion position var inversionCnts = typeof Int32Array !== 'undefined' ? new Int32Array(merged.length + 1) : _.fill(new Array(merged.length + 1), 0); for (var j = 0; j < list2.length; j++) { var jMergedIndex = mergedIndexes[list2[j]]; if (j < i) { for (var k = 0; k <= jMergedIndex; k++) { inversionCnts[k]++; } } else if (jMergedIndex !== undefined) { // j > i for (var k = jMergedIndex + 1; k < inversionCnts.length; k++) { inversionCnts[k]++; } } } // Pick the earliest place that creates the minimum number of inversions var minInversionIndex = 0; for (var j = 1; j < inversionCnts.length; j++) { if (inversionCnts[j] < inversionCnts[minInversionIndex]) { minInversionIndex = j; } } merged.splice(minInversionIndex, 0, elem); mergedIndexes = _.invert(merged); } } return merged; };