how to get distinct values from json in jquery

Question

I've got a jquery json request and in that json data I want to be able to sort by unique values. so I have

{
  "people": [{
        "pbid": "626",
        "birthDate": "1976-02-06",
        "name": 'name'
      }, {
        "pbid": "648",
        "birthDate": "1987-05-22",
        "name": 'name'
      }, .....

So, far, i have this

function(data) {
  $.each(data.people, function(i, person) {
    alert(person.birthDate);
  })
}

but, I am at a total loss as to how efficiently get only the unique birthDates, and sort them by year (or any sort by any other personal data).

I'm trying to do this, and be efficient about it (i'm hoping that is possible).

Thanks

Answer 1

I'm not sure how performant this will be, but basically I'm using an object as a key/value dictionary. I haven't tested this, but this should be sorted in the loop.

function(data) {
    var birthDates = {};
    var param = "birthDate"
    $.each(data.people, function() {
        if (!birthDates[this[param]])
            birthDates[this[param]] = [];   
        birthDates[this[param]].push(this);
    });

    for(var d in birthDates) {
        // add d to array here
        // or do something with d
        // birthDates[d] is the array of people
    }
}

Answer 2

function(data){
    var arr = new Array();
    $.each(data.people, function(i, person){
        if (jQuery.inArray(person.birthDate, arr) === -1) {
            alert(person.birthDate);
            arr.push(person.birthDate);
        }
    });
}