how to prevent adding duplicate keys to a javascript array

var a = [1,2,3], b = [4,1,5,2];

b.forEach(function(value){
  if (a.indexOf(value)==-1) a.push(value);
});

console.log(a);
// [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

For more details read up on Array.indexOf.

If you want to rely on jQuery, instead use jQuery.inArray:

$.each(b,function(value){
  if ($.inArray(value,a)==-1) a.push(value);
});

If all your values are simply and uniquely representable as strings, however, you should use an Object instead of an Array, for a potentially massive speed increase (as described in the answer by @JonathanSampson).

Generally speaking, this is better accomplished with an object instead since JavaScript doesn't really have associative arrays:

var foo = { bar: 0 };

Then use in to check for a key:

if ( !( 'bar' in foo ) ) {
    foo['bar'] = 42;
}

As was rightly pointed out in the comments below, this method is useful only when your keys will be strings, or items that can be represented as strings (such as numbers).