[jQuery] The JS/jquery version of PHP's array_unique

[jQuery] The JS/jquery version of PHP's array_unique


PHP developers will all know about the array_unique() function which
removes duplicate values from an array.
Up until today, we've been using the following function to replicate
this function in Javascript
function array_unique(arr)
{
    var newArray = [];
    var existingItems = {};
    var prefix = String(Math.random() * 9e9);
    for (var ii = 0; ii < arr.length; ++ii)
    {
        if (!existingItems[prefix + arr[ii]])
        {
            newArray.push(arr[ii]);
            existingItems[prefix + arr[ii]] = true;
        }
    }
    return newArray;
}
However, i have just come to learn that jquery's javascript utilities
provide the same affect using $.merge().
So, previously, we would have done arr = array_unique(arr), jquery
allows the same thing to be accomplished through $.merge(arr, arr) -
the immediate benefit of which is that the above code can be deleted
from our core js library.
1. Any chance that jquery will support $.unique() as it makes more
sense than $.merge(arr, arr)
2. Have i missed something?
3. Any comments from anyone?