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Dhanush P
Dhanush P

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Adding / removing methods in Javascript

1.Adding/removing elements

push()

  • Adds one or more elements at the end of an array
  • Returns the new array’s length.
  • Modifies the original array and returns the new length property.

Examples:

Append one element to an array

let numbers = [10, 20, 30];

const length = numbers.push(40);

console.log({ numbers });
console.log({ length });
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Output:

{ numbers: [ 10, 20, 30, 40 ] }
{ length: 4 }
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Add multiple elements to the end of an array


let numbers = [10, 20, 30];

const length = numbers.push(40, 50);

console.log({ numbers });
console.log({ length });
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Output:

{ numbers: [ 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 ] }
{ length: 5 }
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Append elements of an array to another array

// Using a for...of loop 
let colors = ['red', 'green', 'blue'];
let cmyk = ['cyan', 'magenta', 'yellow', 'back'];

for (const color of cmyk) {
  colors.push(color);
}

console.log(colors);
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Output:

['red', 'green', 'blue', 'cyan', 'magenta', 'yellow', 'back']
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// Using a spread operator (...) 
let colors = ['red', 'green', 'blue'];
let cmyk = ['cyan', 'magenta', 'yellow', 'back'];

colors.push(...cmyk);

console.log({ colors });
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unshift()

  • Adds one or more elements to the beginning of an array
  • Returns the new array’s length.
  • It is slow for large arrays because it needs to reindex the existing elements.

Examples:

Prepend an element to an array


let numbers = [30, 40];

const length = numbers.unshift(20);

console.log({ length });
console.log({ numbers });
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Output:

{ length: 3 }
{ numbers: [ 20, 30, 40 ] }
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Prepend multiple elements to an array

let numbers = [30, 40];

const length = numbers.unshift(10, 20);

console.log({ length });
console.log({ numbers });
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Output:

{ length: 4 }
{ numbers: [ 10, 20, 30, 40 ] }
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Prepend elements of an array to another array

const days = ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri'];
const weekends = ['Sat', 'Sun'];

for (const weekend of weekends) {
  days.unshift(weekend);
}

console.log(days);
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Output:

['Sun', 'Sat', 'Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri']
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To make it more concise, you can use the spread operator like this:

let days = ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri'];
let weekends = ['Sat', 'Sun'];

days.unshift(...weekends);

console.log(days);
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pop()

  • Removes the last element from an array
  • Returns the removed element.
  • Modifies the original array by changing its length property.
  • If the array is empty, the pop() returns undefined.

Examples:

Removing the last element of an array

const numbers = [10, 20, 30];
const last = numbers.pop();

console.log({ last });
console.log({ length: numbers.length });
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Output:

{ last: 30 }
{ length: 2 }
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Calling the pop() method on an empty array

const numbers = [];
const last = numbers.pop();

console.log({ last });
console.log({ length: numbers.length });
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Output:

{ last: undefined }
{ length: 0 }
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shift()

  • Removes the first element from an array
  • Returns that element.

Example:

const numbers = [10, 20, 30];
let number = numbers.shift();

console.log({ number });
console.log({ numbers });
console.log({ length: numbers.length });
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Output:

{ number: 10 }
{ numbers: [ 20, 30 ] }
{ length: 2 }
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slice()

  • slice() is used to clone an array
  • Returns a new array that contains the elements of the original array.

Syntax:

slice(start, stop);  // start includes, stop excluding..
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Example:

Clone an array

var numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
var newNumbers = numbers.slice();
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Copy a portion of an array

var colors = ['red','green','blue','yellow','purple'];
var rgb = colors.slice(0,3);
console.log(rgb); // ["red", "green", "blue"]

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splice()

  • To delete existing elements, insert new elements, and replace elements in an array.
  • Modifies (or muate) the original array.
  • To create a new array from the original with some element inserted, deleted, and replaced, you can use the toSpliced() method.

Example:

let scores = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

let deletedScores = scores.splice(0, 3);

console.log({ scores });
console.log({ deletedScores });
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Output:

{ scores: [ 4, 5 ] }
{ deletedScores: [ 1, 2, 3 ] }
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References:

https://www.javascripttutorial.net/javascript-array-methods/
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array

Top comments (1)

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karthick_07 profile image
Karthick (k)

Good