Technical jargon alert:
Polyfills : A polyfill is nothing but a piece of code that implements a feature on web browsers that do not support the feature.
Even though Array methods like forEach, map, filter, find, reduce exist natively in JavaScript, it is very common for interviewers to ask you to code your own implementation of these.
I'm only gonna be covering most important ones so feel free to code your implementations of other methods as well.
1) forEach
The forEach method executes a given function for each element of an array
let arr = [1,2,3,4]
arr.forEach((item,idx,arr)=>console.log(item*2,idx))
//The console prints:
2 0
4 1
6 2
8 3
Now let's implement our own version of the forEach method.
let myforEach = function (callback){
//this refers to the entity that the function is a method of.
for(let i=0;i<this.length;i++){
callback(this[i],i,this);
}
}
Array.prototype.myforEach=myforEach
arr.myforEach((item,idx,arr)=>console.log(item,idx,arr))
1 0 [1, 2, 3, 4]
2 1 [1, 2, 3, 4]
3 2 [1, 2, 3, 4]
4 3 [1, 2, 3, 4]
2) Map
The map() method returns a new array containing with the results of calling a given function on each element in the array it is called with
let arr = [1,2,3,4]
arr.map((item)=> item*2)
//output
[2,4,6,8]
Let's code our own version of map!
let myMap = function(callback){
let result = []
for(let i = 0;i < this.length ; i++){
result.push(callback(this[i],i,this))
}
return result;
}
Array.prototype.myMap = myMap
arr.myMap((item)=>item*2) //you can include or exclude the other 2 arguments to the callback function
//output
[2,4,6,8]
3) Filter
The filter() method returns a new array with all elements that return true for the test implemented by the provided function.
let arr = [1,2,3,4]
arr.filter((item)=>item%2==1)
//output
[1,3]
Let's now code our own implementation of filter
let myFilter = function(callback){
let result = [];
for(let i=0;i<this.length;i++){
if(callback(this[i],i,this)){
result.push(this[i])
}
}
return result;
}
Array.prototype.myFilter = myFilter
arr.filter((item,idx,arr)=>item%2==1)
//output
[1,3]
4) Find
The find method executes the callback function once for each element of the array until the callback returns a truthy value. If so, find immediately returns the value of that element. Otherwise, it returns undefined.
let arr = [1,2,3,4]
arr.filter((item)=>item%2==1)
//output
[1,3]
Let's now code our own implementation of filter
let myFilter = function(callback){
let result = [];
for(let i=0;i<this.length;i++){
if(callback(this[i],i,this)){
result.push(this[i])
}
}
return result;
}
Array.prototype.myFilter = myFilter
arr.filter((item,idx,arr)=>item%2==1)
//output
[1,3]
5) Reduce
The reduce() method executes a reducer function (that you provide) on each element of the array, resulting in a single output value.
The reducer function takes four arguments:
Accumulator
Current Value
Current Index
Source Array
Your reducer function's returned value is assigned to the accumulator, whose value is remembered across each iteration throughout the array, and ultimately becomes the final, single resulting value. If no initial value is provided the first element will be used as the accumulator.
let arr = [1,2,3,4]
arr.reduce((acc,cur)=>{
console.log("acc: " ,acc,"curr: ",cur)
return acc+cur
})
//output
acc: 1 cur: 2
acc: 3 cur: 3
acc: 6 cur: 4
10
Let's now code our own implementation of filter
function myReduce(callback, initialValue) {
let acc,curr;
if (!this.length && !initialValue)
throw new Error("Can't reduce on empty array without an intial value");
else {
// If initialValue is given then it is treated as the accumulator else the 0th index is the accumulator
acc = initialValue ? initialValue : this[0];
for (let i = 1; i < this.length; i++) {
curr = this[i];
acc = callback(acc, curr, i, this);
}
}
return acc;
}
Array.prototype.myReduce = myReduce
arr.myReduce((acc,cur)=>acc+cur)
//output
10
All the code shown above has been executed in the console, let me know incase of any error or if you want to see similar content, go ace that interview!
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