What are Advanced Array Methods?
JavaScript has built in functions for dealing with arrays that can simplify the code, make it easier to read and in the end, make it easier to debug.
These methods that allow arrow functions to be used when working with arrays.
Basically, these methods modify the array and we don’t need to write whole bunch of code which saves lots of time.
We saw Higher Order Functions earlier and we saw many of these array methods over there and how they helped us minimize our code. We will see some more examples in this article.
Examples
1. Array.prototype.pop()
The pop() method removes the last element from an array and returns that element. This method changes the length of the array.
If you call pop() on an empty array, it returns undefined.
Syntax
arr.pop()
2. Array.prototype.sort()
The sort() method sorts the elements of an array in place and returns the sorted array.
The default sort order is ascending.
Syntax
arr.sort([compareFunction]) where
compareFunction Specifies a function that defines the sort order. If omitted, the array elements are converted to strings, then sorted according to each character’s Unicode code point value.
Another Example: Sort numbers in an array in ascending order
3. Array.prototype.shift()
The shift() method removes the first element from an array and returns that removed element or it returns undefined if the array is empty.
Syntax
arr.shift()
4. Array.prototype.unshift()
The unshift() method adds new items to the beginning of an array, and returns the new length.
Syntax
array.unshift(item1, item2, ..., itemX)At least one parameter is required.
5. Array.prototype.find()
The find() method returns the value of the first element in an array that pass a test (provided as a function).
The find() method executes the function once for each element present in the array and if it finds an array element where the function returns a true value, find() returns the value of that array element and does not check the remaining values. If it doesn’t find any matching element, then it returns undefined.
Syntax
array.find(function(currentValue, index, arr),thisValue)
where
currentValue is Required which is the value of the current element,
index is optional which is the array index of the current element and arr is optional which is the array object the current element belongs to.
Lastly, thisValue is optional which is a value to be passed to the function to be used as its “this” value. If this parameter is empty, the value “undefined” will be passed as its “this” value.
6. Array.prototype.findIndex()
The findIndex() method returns the index of the first element in an array that pass a test (provided as a function).
The findIndex() method executes the function once for each element present in the array and if it finds an array element where the function returns a true value, findIndex() returns the value of that array element and does not check the remaining values. If it doesn’t find any matching element, then it returns -1.
Syntax
array.findIndex(function(currentValue, index, arr),thisValue)where
currentValue is Required which is the value of the current element,
index is optional which is the array index of the current element and arr is optional which is the array object the current element belongs to.
Lastly, thisValue is optional which is a value to be passed to the function to be used as its “this” value. If this parameter is empty, the value “undefined” will be passed as its “this” value.
7. Array.prototype.flat()
The flat() method creates a new array with all sub-array elements concatenated into it recursively up to the specified depth.
Syntax
var newArray = arr.flat([depth]);where
depth (optional) is the depth level specifying how deep a nested array structure should be flattened. Defaults to 1.
8. Array.prototype.flatMap()
The flatMap() method first maps each element using a mapping function, then flattens the result into a new array.
It is identical to a map() followed by a flat() of depth 1, but flatMap() is often quite useful, as merging both into one method is slightly more efficient.
Syntax
var new_array = arr.flatMap(function callback(currentValue[, index[, array]]) { // return element for new_array }[, thisArg])Where
currentValue is the current element being processed in the array,
index (Optional) is the index of the current element being processed in the array,
array (Optional) is the array map was called upon,
thisArg (Optional) is the value to use as this when executing callback.
Sources
advanced array examples find flatMap functions map method sort
