In this article, we will see how to get the symmetric difference between two arrays using JavaScript.
In Mathematics the symmetric difference between two sets A and B is represented as A Δ B = (A – B) ∪ (B – A)
- It is defined as a set of all elements that are present in either set A or set B but not in both.
- In simple words, common elements are discarded from both sets.
For example:
A = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
B = { 4, 5, 6, 7 }
A - B = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} - { 4, 5, 6, 7 }
= { 1, 2, 3 }
B - A = { 4, 5, 6, 7 } - { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}
= { 7, 1, 2, 3 }
A Δ B = ( A - B ) ∪ ( B - A )
= { 1, 2, 3 } ∪ { 7, 1, 2, 3 }
A Δ B = { 1, 2, 3, 7 }
We can achieve this with the following approaches:
Approaches to get Symmetric difference:
- Naive method – using Javascript for loop.
- Using the filter() and includes() methods
- Using Set and filter() Methods
- Using reduce() and includes() Methods
Approach 1: Naive method – using Javascript for loop.
Example: In this example, we will be finding the symmetric difference of the two arrays using Javascript for loop.
Javascript
// Defining two arrays and a resultant arrayconst a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9];const b = [5, 6, 7, 8, 9];const result = [];// Defining the function with two// arguments array inputsfunction difference(arr1, arr2) { let i = 0, j = 0; let flag = false; /* For array 1 */ for (i = 0; i < arr1.length; i++) { // Resetting the flag and the // other array iterator j = 0; flag = false; while (j != arr2.length) { if (arr1[i] == arr2[j]) { flag = true; break; } j++; } /* If value is not present in the second array then push that value to the resultant array */ if (!flag) { result.push(arr1[i]); } } flag = false; // For array 2 for (i = 0; i < arr2.length; i++) { // Resetting the flag and the // other array iterator j = 0; flag = false; while (j != arr1.length) { if (arr2[i] == arr1[j]) { flag = true; break; } j++; } /* If value is not present in the first array then push that value to the resultant array */ if (!flag) { result.push(arr2[i]); } } return result;}console.log(difference(a, b)); |
[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 ]
Approach 2: Using the filter() and includes() methods
In this approach, we use the filter() method on the first array and check if each item is not present in the second array using the includes() method. The resulting array contains the elements that are present in the first array but not in the second array.
Syntax:
array1.filter((element) => !array2.includes(element));
Example: In this example, we use filter() and includes() methods to get the difference between the arrays as shown:
Javascript
// Defining two arrays and a resultant arrayconst array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9];const array2 = [5, 6, 7, 8, 9];// Getting elements in array1 but not array2const difference1 = array1.filter( (element) => !array2.includes(element));// Getting elements in array2 but not array1const difference2 = array2.filter( (element) => !array1.includes(element));// Combining the differencesconst result = [...difference1, ...difference2];// Showing the outputconsole.log(result); |
[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 ]
Approach 3: Using Set and filter() Method
In this approach, the arrays are converted to Sets using the Set constructor. The Set data structure only allows unique values. By filtering out the elements from the first set that also exist in the second Set, we can obtain the difference.
Syntax:
const difference = [...set1].filter((element) => !set2.has(element));
Example: In this example, we will get the differences of arrays using set and filter() method and show the combined result as output:
Javascript
// Defining two arraysconst array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9];const array2 = [5, 6, 7, 8, 9];// Converting arrrays to sets using set methodconst set1 = new Set(array1);const set2 = new Set(array2);// Geting the differences using filter methodconst difference1 = [...set1].filter((element) => !set2.has(element));const difference2 = [...set2].filter((element) => !set1.has(element));// Combining differnce arraysconst result = [...difference1, ...difference2];// Showing the result as outputconsole.log(result); |
[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 ]
Approach 4:Using reduce() and includes() Methods
This method iterates over the first array and checks if each element is present in the second array using the includes() method. It accumulates the elements that are not found in the second array, resulting in the difference between the two arrays.
Syntax:
const difference = array1.reduce((result, element) => {
if (array2.indexOf(element) === -1) {
result.push(element);
}
return result;
}, []);
Example: In this example, we will get the differences of arrays using reduce() and includes() methods and show the combined result as output:
Javascript
// Defining two arraysconst array1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9];const array2 = [5, 6, 7, 8, 9];// Getting elemment in array1 but not in array2const difference1 = array1.reduce((result, element) => { if (array2.indexOf(element) === -1) { result.push(element); } return result;}, []);// Getting elemements in array2 but not in array1const difference2 = array2.reduce((result, element) => { if (array1.indexOf(element) === -1) { result.push(element); } return result;}, []);// Combining the diffeerence using spread operatorconst result = [...difference1, ...difference2];// Show the result as outputconsole.log(result); |
[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 ]
