Question

I have this code that unites two lists:

let rec union list1 list2 =
    match list2 with
    | [] -> list1
    | x::xs when mem x list1 -> union list1 xs
    | x::xs -> x::(union list1 xs)

However, this doesn’t give me the result I would like; I want the result to be in order with the smallest first. How would I go about doing this?

Answer 1

This will work even if your inputs are not sorted:

let sortedUnion list1 list2 =
    let rec union list1 list2 =
        match list2 with
        | [] -> list1
        | x::xs when mem x list1 -> union list1 xs
        | x::xs -> x::(union list1 xs)
    let unsorted = union list1 list2
    List.sort unsorted