Learn JavaScript Array Methods in just 8 Minutes!!

Array Methods :

1. ITERATION METHODS :

• Examination Methods : Observe the context of an Array.
• Transformation Methods : Derive a new array from receiver.
• Reduction Methods : Compute a result based on the receiver's element.
• From Loops : Iterating Arrays from Loops.

1.1 Examination Methods

1.1.1 Array.forEach(callback, thisValue?)

Iterates over the every entry of an array. It takes a callback function where you can code. You cannot break out of it or return a value from it.

Example :

1.1.2 Array.every(callback, thisValue?)

Returns true, if the callback returns true for every element. It will stop iteration as soon as the callback return false.

Example :

1.1.3 Array.some(callback, thisValue?)

Returns true, if the callback returns true for at least one element. It stops iteration as soon as the callback returns true.

Example :

1.2. Transformation Methods

1.2.1 Array.map(callback, thisValue?) : Copy while giving new values to elements.

This will map all the values to an expression & returns a modified copy of the array leaving original untouched.

Example :

1.2.2 Array.filter(callback, thisValue?) : Only keep some of the elements.

This will only keep the elements which will match the condition & returns modified copy of the array leaving original untouched.

Example :

1.3. Reduction Methods

1.3.1 Array.reduce(callback, initialValue?) : deriving a value from an Array

This will reduce all the elements to a single value & reducer

function total

takes value and accumulator. Accumulator is required to be set to a starting value & returns modified copy of the array leaving original untouched.

Example :

1.4. Iterating Arrays from Loops

1.4.1 For Loops

The

for loop

is one of the basic loops for looping through an array. It takes a starting index and then loops through to the ending index. Index === Integer.

Example :

1.4.2 While Loops

The

while loop

will loop whenever a condition stays true. This code below uses a while loop. In each loop iteration, it removes the first element of array via .shift() and logs it.

Example :

1.4.3 Do-while Loops

The

do-while

loop works much like

while loops

, but it will check its condition after each loop iteration(not before) & it will always execute first iteration.

Example :

2. ARRAY CONSTRUCTOR METHODS :

2.1 Array.isArray(object)

Returns true if object is an array. It is a convenient way to check if the element is an array.

Example :

3. ARRAY PROTOTYPE METHODS :

These are grouped by functionality :

• Destructive : They change the arrays that they are invoked on.
• Non-Destructive : They don't modify their receivers, such methods often return new arrays

3.1. Destructive Methods

3.1.1 Array.shift()

Removes the element at index 0 and returns it. The indices of subsequent elements are decremented by 1.

Example :

3.1.2 Array.unshift(elem1?, elem2?, ...)

Prepends the given elements to the array. It returns the new length.

Example :

3.1.3 Array.pop()

Removes the last element of the array and returns it.

Example :

3.1.4 Array.push(elem1?, elem2?, ...)

Adds the given elements to the end of the array. It returns the new length.

Example :

3.1.5 Array.splice(startIndex, delete Count?, elem1?, elem2?, ...)

Starting at

startIndex

, removes

delete-Count

elements and insert the given elements. In simple words, we are replacing the deleteCount elements at position

startIndex

with

elem1, elem2

, and so on. This method returns the elements that have been removed. Start can be negative = (-1) refers the last element, and so on.

Example :

3.1.6 Array.reverse()

Reverse the order of the elements in the array and returns a reference to the original(modified) array.

Example :

3.1.7 Array.fill(new-element, start-index, end-Index)

Array.fill

will add or replace the element with the element specified from

start Index

to

end Index

. If

start Index

is not defined then it will start from 0, if

end index

is not defined, then it will change values up to end of the array.

Example :

3.1.8 Array.sort(compare-function?)

It will sort the array and returns it. This sorting compares values by converting them to strings, which means that numbers are not sorted numerically we can fix this by providing the optional parameter

compareFunction()

.

Example :

3.2 Non-Destructive Methods

3.2.1 Array.concat(arr1?, arr2?, ... )

Creates a new array that contains all the elements of the receiver, if one of the parameters is not an array, then it is added to the result as an element. so if we can say in simple words, it will add different array elements to the new array.

Example :

3.2.2 Array.join(separator?)

This will return a string by concatenating the entries after they are converted to string with the separator between each entry. Works best with the string and number arrays. If separator is omitted,

','

is used.

Example :

3.2.3 Array.slice(startIndex?, endIndex?)

It will copy array elements into a new array, starting at

start Index

, until and excluding the element at

end Index

,which means

start Index

to

endIndex-1

. If either of the indices is negative then the array length is added to it, thus, (-1) refers to the last element, and so on.

Example :

3.2.4 Array.includes()

Array.includes()

checks if an item exits in an array. It takes a number or string which the function can compare.

Example :

3.2.5 Array.indexOf(searchaValue, startIndex?)

It will search the array for

search Value

, starting at

start Index

. It returns the index of the first occurrence or if nothing is found it returns

-1

. if

start Index

is negative, the array length is added to it & if it is missing, the whole array is searched.

Example :

3.2.6 Array.lastIndexOf(searchElement, startIndex?)

It will search the array for

search Element

, starting at

start Index

, backward. It returns the index of the first occurrence or if nothing found it returns

-1

.

Example :

4. SOME OTHER IMPORTANT ARRAY METHODS :

4.1 Remove Duplicates in Array

4.1.1 Array.from(new Set(array))

Set

is an object that cannot have duplicates entries. You can create a new

Set

from an array then convert it back to an array.

Example :

4.2 Find Element in Array

4.2.1 Array.find()

Array.find

will return the element in the array with the given condition. Example, if we want to get certain elements from array & work on that element separately.

Example :

4.2.2 Array.findIndex()

Array.findIndex

will return the index of the element in the array with the given condition. it is same as

indexOf

method but only difference is

indexOf

only works with primitive values. if you wish to find an

object(array, object or function)

in the array, you need to use method

findIndex

.

Example :

Manipulation of Arrays with just Array.slice() and Array.concat().

There are so many methods like

push

,

pop

,

shift

,

unshift

, and

splice

because they're easier to use as a beginner, if we open any book or website, they have used these methods to manipulate the arrays. But these methods mutate arrays to ensure arrays don't mutate. you can use

slice

and

concat

over these five methods As these two are non-destructive methods which doesn't modify the existing array and they will return a new array.

1. Adding Elements

1.1 Adding items to the beginning of array.

• Convert items to add into an array(if they're not one already)
• Combine the arrays together with

  concat

Example :

1.2 Adding items to the end of array

We can add elements to the end of an array with a method called

concat

.

Example :

1.3 Adding items to the middle of an array

The idea is to add elements to the middle of an array is to split your array into two parts with

slice

then join three arrays together in this sequence :

first part, items to add, second part

.

Example :

2. Removing Elements

2.1 Removing items from the front

We can remove elements from the front of an array with a method

slice

.

Example :

2.2 Removing items from the end

We can use same method to remove elements from the front of an array. but first we will need to pass correct

endIndex

value. So that you can remove the last item and can use

Array.length - 1

as your

endIndex

value.

Example :

2.3 Removing items from the middle

Removing items from the middle of an array is trickier then to removing item from the end. The idea is to copy the parts you want to retain with

slice

then join the copied arrays together with

concat

.

Example :

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