Javascript Array Methods

Iterative Methods

filter()

runs the given function on every item in the array and returns an array of all items for which the function returns true

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1];
let filterResult = numbers.filter((item, index, array) => item > 2);
alert(filterResult); // [3, 4, 5, 4, 3]

forEach()

runs the given function on every item in the array. This method has no return value.

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1];
numbers.forEach((item, index, array) => {
    // do something here
});

map()

runs the given function on every item in the array and returns the result of each function call in an array

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1];
let mapResult = numbers.map((item, index, array) => item * 2);
alert(filterResult); // [2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2]

every()

runs the given function on every item in the array and returns true if the function returns true for every item

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1];
let everyResult = numbers.every((item, index, array) => item > 2);
alert(everyResult); // false

some()

runs the given function on every item in the array and returns true if the function returns true for any one item

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1];
let someResult = numbers.some((item, index, array) => item > 2);
alert(someResult); // true

Reordering Methods

Two methods deal directly with the reordering of items already in the array: reverse() and sort()

reverse()

The reverse() method simply reverses the order of items in an array

let values = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
values.reverse(); // [5, 4, 3, 2, 1]

sort()

By default, the sort() method puts the items in ascending order - with the smallest value first and the largest value last, Noted that the sort() method does the string comparison even all items in an array is number.

let values = [0, 1, 5, 10, 15];
values.sort(); // [0, 1, 10, 15, 5]

To sort other data type like number, we can use a comparison function

let values = [15, 10, 0, 1, 5];
let compare = (value1, value2) => value1 - value2;
values.sort(compare); // [0, 1, 5, 10, 15];

Stack Methods

An array object can act just like a stack, meaning the most recently added item is the first one removed. ECMAScript arrays provide push() and pop() specifically to allow stack-like behavior.

let colors = [];
colors.push("red", "green", "blue"); // push 3 items => ["red", "green", "blue"]
colors.pop(); // get the last items => ["red", "green"]

Queue Methods

A queue adds items to the end of a list and retrieves items from the front of the list. We can use push() method to add item to the end of an array and use shift() method to remove the first item in the array.

let colors = [];
colors.push("red", "green", "blue"); // push 3 items => ["red", "green", "blue"]
colors.shift(); // remove the first item => ["green", "blue"]

ECMAScript also provides an unshift() method to add any number of items to the front of an array

colors.unshift("black", "white"); // add 2 items to the front of the array => ["black", "white", "green", "blue"]

Some useful ways

Remove duplicate values from JS array

let names = ["Mike","Matt","Nancy","Adam","Jenny","Nancy","Carl"];
let uniqueNames = names.filter(function(item, pos, self) {
    return self.indexOf(item) === pos;
})

Although concise, this algorithm is not particularly efficient for large arrays (quadratic time). We have a better way:

function uniq(a) {
    var prims = {"boolean":{}, "number":{}, "string":{}}, objs = [];

    return a.filter(function(item) {
        var type = typeof item;
        if(type in prims)
            return prims[type].hasOwnProperty(item) ? false : (prims[type][item] = true);
        else
            return objs.indexOf(item) >= 0 ? false : objs.push(item);
    });
}

source:

• Professional Javascript for Web Developers - Nicholas C. Zakas
• Remove duplicate values from JS array