Array (Instance) Methods

Array Instance Methods

Methods that exist on the prototype of Array

Concat

Returns and array joined (concatenated) with another array or values.

const array1 = ["a", "b", "c"];
const array2 = ["d", "e", "f"];
const array3 = array1.concat(array2);

console.log(array3); // ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f"]

You can also concatenate values to an array.

const letters = ["a", "b", "c"];
const alphaNumeric = letters.concat(1, [2, 3]);
console.log(alphaNumeric); // ["a", "b", "c", 1, 2, 3]

Or concatenate nested arrays.

const num1 = [[1]];
const num2 = [2, [3]];
const numbers = num1.concat(num2);

console.log(numbers); // [[1], 2, [3]]

// modify the first element of num1
num1[0].push(4);
console.log(numbers); // [[1, 4], 2, [3]]

Entries

It is relatively common to use the method entries or keys or values on an object, but they are also supported on arrays.

Entries method returns an iterator with key/value pair.

const array1 = ["a", "b", "c"];
const iterator = array1.entries();

console.log(iterator.next().value); // [0, "a"]
console.log(iterator.next().value); // [1, "b"]

Keys

Keys method returns an iterator with keys.

const array1 = ["a", "b", "c"];
const iterator = array1.keys();

console.log(iterator.next().value); // 0
console.log(iterator.next().value); // 1
console.log(iterator.next().value); // 2

Values

const array2 = ["a", "b", "c"];
const i = array2.values();

console.log(i.next().value); // a
console.log(i.next().value); // b
console.log(i.next().value); // c

Includes

Includes method checks if an array contains an element and returns true or false.

const array1 = [1, 2, 3];
console.log(array1.includes(3)); // true
console.log(array1.includes(4)); // false

const pets = ["cat", "dog", "bat"];
console.log(pets.includes("cat")); // true
console.log(pets.includes("at")); // false

The includes method also takes index as the second parameter. The second parameter makes the include method check for a value in an array with an index greater than or equal to the provided index.

let example = ["a", "b", "c"]

example.includes("b", 3); // false
example.includes("b", 100); // false
example.includes("b", 1); // true

indexOf

indexOf method returns the first index of the given element if it is present in the array. If it is not, it returns -1. Folks used it to check if an element exists in an array before ES6. There is no specific need to use indexOf when includes exist.

Use the includes() method to check if the element is present in the array. If you need to know where the element is in the array, you need to use the indexOf() method.

var array = [2, 9, 9];
array.indexOf(2); // 0
array.indexOf(7); // -1
array.indexOf(9, 2); // 2
array.indexOf(2, -1); // -1
array.indexOf(2, -3); // 0

findIndex

At this point, you have learned about indexOf and includes to find element or index. findIndex is somewhat similar. findIndex provides you the index of the first element that satisfies a callback or a testing function.

indexOf expects the value you are looking for as a parameter. findIndex looks for a callback or testing function as its parameter. I would suggest using indexOf in arrays with primitive types like strings, numbers, or booleans. Use findIndex when dealing with non-primitive types like objects, and your find condition is relatively complicated.

const fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cantaloupe", "blueberries", "grapefruit"];
const index = fruits.findIndex(fruit => fruit === "blueberries");

console.log(index); // 3
console.log(fruits[index]); // blueberries

Find

I believe you think I am trolling you with all these methods that find if the index or value exists in an array. They all have a very subtle difference, and I have listed the differences in each method description.

The find method returns the value of the first element that matches the callback or the testing condition. find gets you value and findIndex gets you index. 🙂

const array = [7, 33, 47, 99, 2, 103, 79];
const found = array.find(element => element > 10);
console.log(found); // 33

Join

join method is a relatively common and frequently used method. It creates and returns a string by concatenating all of the elements in an array. You can join all elements or provide a separator to connect them with. By default, the method uses a comma (,) as a separator.

const fruits = ["Apple", "Banana", "Raspberry"];

console.log(fruits.join()); // Apple,Banana,Raspberry
console.log(fruits.join("")); // AppleBananaRaspberry
console.log(fruits.join("|")); // Apple|Banana|Raspberry