Difference and intersection of two arrays containing objects

Just use filter and some array methods of JS and you can do that.

let arr1 = list1.filter(e => {
   return !list2.some(item => item.userId === e.userId);
});

This will return the items that are present in list1 but not in list2. If you are looking for the common items in both lists. Just do this. 

let arr1 = list1.filter(e => {
   return list2.some(item => item.userId === e.userId); // take the ! out and you're done
});

short answer: 

list1.filter(a => list2.some(b => a.userId === b.userId));  
list1.filter(a => !list2.some(b => a.userId === b.userId));  
list2.filter(a => !list1.some(b => a.userId === b.userId));

longer answer:
The code above will check objects by userId value,
if you need complex compare rules, you can define custom comparator:

comparator = function (a, b) {
    return a.userId === b.userId && a.userName === b.userName
};  
list1.filter(a => list2.some(b => comparator(a, b)));
list1.filter(a => !list2.some(b => comparator(a, b)));
list2.filter(a => !list1.some(b => comparator(a, b)));

Also there is a way to compare objects by references
WARNING! two objects with same values will be considered different:

o1 = {"userId":1};
o2 = {"userId":2};
o1_copy = {"userId":1};
o1_ref = o1;
[o1].filter(a => [o2].includes(a)).length; // 0
[o1].filter(a => [o1_copy].includes(a)).length; // 0
[o1].filter(a => [o1_ref].includes(a)).length; // 1

You could define three functions inBoth, inFirstOnly, and inSecondOnly which all take two lists as arguments, and return a list as can be understood from the function name. The main logic could be put in a common function operation that all three rely on.

Here are a few implementations for that operation to choose from, for which you can find a snippet further down:

  • Plain old JavaScript for loops
  • Arrow functions using filter and some array methods
  • Optimised lookup with a Set

Plain old for loops

// Generic helper function that can be used for the three operations:        
function operation(list1, list2, isUnion) {
    var result = [];
    
    for (var i = 0; i < list1.length; i++) {
        var item1 = list1[i],
            found = false;
        for (var j = 0; j < list2.length && !found; j++) {
            found = item1.userId === list2[j].userId;
        }
        if (found === !!isUnion) { // isUnion is coerced to boolean
            result.push(item1);
        }
    }
    return result;
}

// Following functions are to be used:
function inBoth(list1, list2) {
    return operation(list1, list2, true);
}

function inFirstOnly(list1, list2) {
    return operation(list1, list2);
}

function inSecondOnly(list1, list2) {
    return inFirstOnly(list2, list1);
}

// Sample data
var list1 = [
    { userId: 1234, userName: 'XYZ'  }, 
    { userId: 1235, userName: 'ABC'  }, 
    { userId: 1236, userName: 'IJKL' },
    { userId: 1237, userName: 'WXYZ' }, 
    { userId: 1238, userName: 'LMNO' }
];
var list2 = [
    { userId: 1235, userName: 'ABC'  },  
    { userId: 1236, userName: 'IJKL' },
    { userId: 1252, userName: 'AAAA' }
];
  
console.log('inBoth:', inBoth(list1, list2)); 
console.log('inFirstOnly:', inFirstOnly(list1, list2)); 
console.log('inSecondOnly:', inSecondOnly(list1, list2));

Arrow functions using filter and some array methods

This uses some ES5 and ES6 features:

// Generic helper function that can be used for the three operations:        
const operation = (list1, list2, isUnion = false) =>
    list1.filter( a => isUnion === list2.some( b => a.userId === b.userId ) );

// Following functions are to be used:
const inBoth = (list1, list2) => operation(list1, list2, true),
      inFirstOnly = operation,
      inSecondOnly = (list1, list2) => inFirstOnly(list2, list1);

// Sample data
const list1 = [
    { userId: 1234, userName: 'XYZ'  }, 
    { userId: 1235, userName: 'ABC'  }, 
    { userId: 1236, userName: 'IJKL' },
    { userId: 1237, userName: 'WXYZ' }, 
    { userId: 1238, userName: 'LMNO' }
];
const list2 = [
    { userId: 1235, userName: 'ABC'  },  
    { userId: 1236, userName: 'IJKL' },
    { userId: 1252, userName: 'AAAA' }
];
  
console.log('inBoth:', inBoth(list1, list2)); 
console.log('inFirstOnly:', inFirstOnly(list1, list2)); 
console.log('inSecondOnly:', inSecondOnly(list1, list2));

Optimising lookup

The above solutions have a O(n²) time complexity because of the nested loop -- some represents a loop as well. So for large arrays you'd better create a (temporary) hash on user-id. This can be done on-the-fly by providing a Set (ES6) as argument to a function that will generate the filter callback function. That function can then perform the look-up in constant time with has:

// Generic helper function that can be used for the three operations:        
const operation = (list1, list2, isUnion = false) =>
    list1.filter(
        (set => a => isUnion === set.has(a.userId))(new Set(list2.map(b => b.userId)))
    );

// Following functions are to be used:
const inBoth = (list1, list2) => operation(list1, list2, true),
      inFirstOnly = operation,
      inSecondOnly = (list1, list2) => inFirstOnly(list2, list1);

// Sample data
const list1 = [
    { userId: 1234, userName: 'XYZ'  }, 
    { userId: 1235, userName: 'ABC'  }, 
    { userId: 1236, userName: 'IJKL' },
    { userId: 1237, userName: 'WXYZ' }, 
    { userId: 1238, userName: 'LMNO' }
];
const list2 = [
    { userId: 1235, userName: 'ABC'  },  
    { userId: 1236, userName: 'IJKL' },
    { userId: 1252, userName: 'AAAA' }
];
  
console.log('inBoth:', inBoth(list1, list2)); 
console.log('inFirstOnly:', inFirstOnly(list1, list2)); 
console.log('inSecondOnly:', inSecondOnly(list1, list2));

Tags:

Javascript

Arrays

Set Difference

Set Intersection

Set Operations

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