#' Composite Likelihood Calculation for Spatial Ordinal Data without Replications (for implmentation)
#'
#' @param x an object to be merged into list of object.
#' @param y an object to be merged into list.
#' @param mergeUnnamed select an element if it has a.) an empty name in y and
#' mergeUnnamed is true or  b.) a name _not_ contained in x
#' @return \code{merge.list} returns a list: a merged list


merge.list <- function(x, y=NULL, mergeUnnamed=TRUE) {
  if (is.null(y)) {
    return(as.list(x))
  } else {
    y <- as.list(y)

    # replace NA in names with ""
    if (!is.null(names(x))) {
      names(x)[is.na(names(x))] <- ""
    }
    if (!is.null(names(y))) {
      names(y)[is.na(names(y))] <- ""
    }

    names1 <- names(x)
    names2 <- names(y)

    # select an element if it has:
    # a.) an empty name in y _and_
    #     mergeUnnamed is true _or_
    # b.) a name _not_ contained in x
    isUnique <- if (mergeUnnamed) {
      if (is.null(names2) | is.null(names1)) {
        rep(TRUE, length(y))
      } else {
        (nchar(names2) == 0) | !(names2 %in% names1)
      }
    } else {
      !(names2 %in% names1) & (nchar(names2) != 0)
    }
    mergedList <- c(x, y[isUnique])
    return(mergedList)
  }
}