Performance issues when merging multiple sorted arrays in JavaScript
I've been banging my head against this for hours. I'm currently working on a feature that requires me to merge several sorted arrays into one sorted array in a performant manner. I've implemented a straightforward approach using the `Array.prototype.concat` method followed by `Array.prototype.sort`, but I've noticed significant performance degradation with larger datasets. For example, merging 10 arrays, each containing 1,000 sorted numbers, takes noticeably longer than expected. Here's the code I have so far: ```javascript function mergeSortedArrays(arrays) { return arrays.reduce((acc, curr) => acc.concat(curr), []).sort((a, b) => a - b); } const array1 = [1, 3, 5, 7]; const array2 = [2, 4, 6, 8]; const array3 = [0, 9, 10, 11]; const mergedArray = mergeSortedArrays([array1, array2, array3]); console.log(mergedArray); ``` This code works fine for smaller arrays, but when I increase the size, I start to encounter slowdowns, and I can see the execution time go up in my performance logs. From what I understand, the sort function has a time complexity of O(n log n), and using `concat` in a loop might also be contributing to this inefficiency. I've considered using a merging technique similar to the one used in the merge step of the merge sort algorithm, but I'm not sure how to implement that efficiently. Could anyone suggest a better approach to merge multiple sorted arrays without running into performance bottlenecks? Additionally, would there be any specific edge cases I should be aware of in terms of handling duplicate values or very large arrays? Thanks in advance for your help! I'm working with Javascript in a Docker container on Ubuntu 20.04. I'm open to any suggestions.