Compare arrays of objects independent of the order

Question

I have 2 arrays of objects and I have to compare them, but the order of the objects DOES NOT matter. I can't sort them because I won't have their keys' names because the functions must be generic. The only information that I'll have about the array is that both array's objects have the same amount of keys and those keys have the same name. So the array1 must contain the same objects as the array2.

var array1 = [{"key1":"Banana", "key2":"Yammy"}, {"key1":"Broccoli", "key2":"Ew"}];
var array2 = [{"key1":"Broccoli", "key2":"Ew"}, {"key1":"Banana", "key2":"Yammy"}];

In the example, array1 must be equal array2. I tryed to use the chai .eql() method but it didn't work.

Answer 1

The following solution:

• will verify that the arrays have an equal number of elements
• does not impose restrictions on keys (as to not contain a certain delimiter)
• requires both keys and (string) values to be the same
• has a time complexity of O(nlogn) (instead of O(n²) as some other solutions here)

function equalArrays(a, b) {
    if (a.length !== b.length) return false;
    const ser = o => JSON.stringify(Object.keys(o).sort().map( k => [k, o[k]] ));
    a = new Set(a.map(ser));
    return b.every( o => a.has(ser(o)) );
}

// Example
var array1 = [{"key1":"Banana", "key2":"Yammy"}, {"key1":"Broccoli", "key2":"Ew"}];
var array2 = [{"key1":"Broccoli", "key2":"Ew"}, {"key1":"Banana", "key2":"Yammy"}];
console.log(equalArrays(array1, array2)); // true
// Example with different key name
var array1 = [{"key0":"Banana", "key2":"Yammy"}, {"key1":"Broccoli", "key2":"Ew"}];
var array2 = [{"key1":"Broccoli", "key2":"Ew"}, {"key1":"Banana", "key2":"Yammy"}];
console.log(equalArrays(array1, array2)); // false