How are empty cells stored in a sparse array in JavaScript? - javascript

I have a situation where I may be setting an array cell of a high index without setting any of the cells before it.
>>> var arr = [];
undefined
>>> arr[5] = 'value';
"filled"
>>> arr
[undefined, undefined, undefined, undefined, undefined, "filled"]
How is such an array stored in memory? Is there space allocated for each undefined value?
In my actual project, I may be using very large indices. For example, I may set cells 500-800 and 900-1000. I can't use a hash because I need to loop through these non-empty cells and be aware of their index. I want to know if fragmenting the array like this will use up a ton of memory for the empty cells.

Strapping onto aefxx's answer, you can still iterate:
var obj = {500: "foo", 10923: "bar"};
var max = 0;
for (var key in obj)
max=key>max?key:(max||key); // get max key
for (var i=0; i<=max; i++)
console.log(obj[i]); // output even the undefined
As Phrogz commented, it doesn't allocate for undeclared elements of the array. I'm not certain if that's the case if you explicitly set the element value to undefined (e.g. arr[somenum] = undefined;)

I can't use a hash because I need to loop through these non-empty cells and be aware of their index.
What's wrong with the for (x in ...) language construct?
EDITED to accomodate vol7ron's comment:
var x = {2: "foo", 999: "bar"};
for ( var n in x ) {
if ( x.hasOwnProperty(n) ) {
console.log(n);
console.log(x[n]);
}
}

You should probably simply store the max index in a variable and the access your map like this :
for (var i=0; i<=maxIndex; i++) {
console.log(myMap[i]);
}
Then you'll have the (relative) compacity of the map and the ability to loop through unsetted indexes.

Related

Dynamically created Array always filled with variables

Why is the logged Array always filled with data? Shouldnt it be an array with only one then two then three arrays in it?
var theArray=[];
function insertValues(species,quantity){
var w = window;
w[species]= [];
for(let i =0; i<quantity;i++){
w[species].push({
species:species,
randomValue:Math.random()*10
})
// console.log(theArray);
}
theArray.push(w[species]);
}
var listOfSpecies =[{animal:"Fish",amount:5},{animal:"Shark",amount:5},{animal:"Algae",amount:5}];
for(let i = 0; i<listOfSpecies.length; i++){
console.log(theArray);
insertValues(listOfSpecies[i].animal,listOfSpecies[i].amount);
}
Woah! Firstly, don't assign to window! (unexpected things will almost definitely occur).
Also, JavaScript objects (yes an array is an object, typeof [] === "object" // true) are passed by reference, not by value.
When you add to theArray, a new reference is created. When you go to log it to the console, it shows an empty array at first, but it has actually logged a reference to theArray, therefore, when you go to inspect the contents, it shows an array filled with values;
Even try the example below, the same thing occurs (albeit much simpler to follow)
var arr = [];
for (var idx = 0; idx < 3; idx++) {
console.log(arr);
arr[idx] = idx;
}
to prevent this, you would need to copy the array, like so:
var newArray = Object.assign([], theArray);
Object.assign copies the values of the array (or object), returning a new array (again, or object), but does not create a reference back to the original array or object.

How to remove all undefined keys from a javascript array (hopefully when creating the array?)

I have placed my frustrations into a jsfiddle to observe here: http://jsfiddle.net/8ShFr/1/
var brand_new_array = new Array();
brand_new_array[10] = "random array value";
alert('why does this array have a length of ' + brand_new_array.length + '???');
I am doing some calculations client side that require me to set javascript array keys of 1M+ in number.
Not knowing exactly what that number is demands that I iterate through the first 1M+ empty array values before getting to an array key that holds data.
I simply want to set a single large key value for a javascript array without creating a bunch of empty keys before it?
I am using jQuery.each to iterate over the array, and it keeps going through array[0], array[1], array[2], etc... when I only set array[123125] for example.
Just filter out the undefineds.
brand_new_array = brand_new_array.filter(function(n){return n !== undefined});
The reason for the length being 10 is that an array's length is set to the largest index number in the array. However, this does not mean there are 9 other values in there because in javascript an array is at its base an object.
The length is just a property in the object. Arrays in javascript are at their core objects (Array Object 1). They merely act like arrays through an api.
"Whenever a property is added whose name is an array index, the length property is changed, if necessary, to be one more than the numeric value of that array index" 1
1. ECMAScript Language Specification 15.4 Array Objects
You probably want to just use an object with strings for keys (the keys can be the toString() of Numbers, which will happen automatically if you try to use numbers).
var sparse_array_obj = {};
sparse_array_obj[10003210234] = 4; // Fair dice roll
sparse_array_obj[5] = 17; // Truly random number
sparse_array_obj[900] = Math.random(); // Pseudorandom number
for(var i in sparse_array_obj)
console.log(sparse_array_obj[i]);
The downside is that Javascript provides no guarantees about the iteration order through an object (since its keys are unordered by definition). There are however ways around this, such as:
// Sort the keys in numeric order
var sorted_keys = Object.keys(sparse_array_obj).sort(function(a, b){ return a - b; });
for(var i = 0; i < sorted_keys.length; i++)
console.log(sparse_array_obj[sorted_keys[i]]);
Object.keys needs to be shimmed in older browsers.
var brand_new_array = new Array();
brand_new_array[10] = "random array value";
var result = brand_new_array.filter(function(e) { return e != undefined;})[0];
alert(brand_new_array.indexOf(result));
Travis J is right. The array in your example only contains one entry, but your use of jQuery.each() is making you think there are 10 entries because it iterates from 0 up to the highest index number of the array (defines the length). This is from the jQuery.each() API documentation.
A generic iterator function, which can be used to seamlessly iterate over both objects and arrays. Arrays and array-like objects with a length property (such as a function's arguments object) are iterated by numeric index, from 0 to length-1. Other objects are iterated via their named properties.
Going back to your example:
var brand_new_array = new Array();
brand_new_array[10] = "random array value";
This will result in only one console.log output:
for(var i in brand_new_array)
console.log(brand_new_array[i]);
This will result in 10 console.log outputs:
$(brand_new_array).each( function(i,e) { console.log(e) })
Similarly, this will result in 10 console.log outputs:
for (var i=0;i<brand_new_array.length;i++)
console.log(brand_new_array[i]);
If you really want to stick with using .each() then you can skip the undefined indices like so:
$(brand_new_array).each( function(i,e) {
if (this.hasOwnProperty(i)){ console.log(e) }
})
Filter the falsy items - including undifined:
var a=[1,2,"b",0,{},"",NaN,3,undefined,null,5];
var b=a.filter(Boolean); // [1,2,"b",{},3,5]
The length is 11 because the index starts at 0.
x[0] = undefined
x[1] = undefined
x[2] = undefined
x[3] = undefined
x[4] = undefined
x[5] = undefined
x[6] = undefined
x[7] = undefined
x[8] = undefined
x[9] = undefined
x[10] = "random array value"

How to create empty 2d array in javascript?

How do I create an empty 2D array in Javascript (without knowing how many rows or columns there will be in the new array)?
If it's a simple array var newArray = new Array(); I can assign as many elements as I want. But what about a 2D array? Can I create one without specifying the numbers of rows and columns? and how do I access the elements afterwards (myArray[0][1] or myArray[0,1])?
You can create a 6 x 6 empty array like this:
var myGrid = [...Array(6)].map(e => Array(6));
Array(6) generates an array with length = 6 and full of undefined values.
We map that array to another array full of undefined values.
In the end, we get a 6x6 grid full of undefined positions.
If you need to initialize the grid with a default value:
var value = 'foo'; // by default
var myGrid = [...Array(6)].map(e => Array(6).fill(value));
Now you have a 6 x 6 grid full of 'foo'.
Yes you can create an empty array and then push data into it. There is no need to define the length first in JavaScript. Check out jsFiddle Live Demo
Define:
const arr = [[],[]];
Push data:
arr[0][2] = 'Hi Mr.A';
arr[1][3] = 'Hi Mr.B';
Read data:
alert(arr[0][2]);
alert(arr[1][3]);
Update:
Here is also a video recommended by Brady Dowling:
Create a 2D array: ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMeDkp1J2OM][2])
There are no two dimensional arrays in Javascript.
To accomplish the effect of a two dimensional array, you use an array of arrays, also known as a jagged array (because the inner arrays can have different length).
An empty jagged array is created just like any other empty array:
var myArray = new Array();
You can also use an empty array literal:
var myArray = [];
To put any items in the jagged array, you first have to put inner arrays in it, for example like this:
myArray.push([]);
myArray[0][0] = 'hello';
You can also create an array that contains a number of empty arrays from start:
var myArray = [[],[],[]];
That gives you a jagged array without any items, but which is prepared with three inner arrays.
As it's an array of arrays, you access the items using myArray[0][1].
Say you wanted to make a 2d array (i.e. matrix) that's 100x100, you can do it in one line, like this:
var 2darray = new Array(100).fill(null).map(()=>new Array(100).fill(null));
This will create a 100x100 matrix of NULL's.
Replace the 100x100 with whatever dimensions you want, and the null's with whatever is your prefered default value, or blank for undefined.
You can use a simple for loop to create an array of the approximate size and then push more rows if need be.
const arr = [];
const n = 7;
const m = 5;
for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
arr.push(new Array(m).fill(0));
}
const arr = [];
const n = 7;
const m = 5;
for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
arr.push(new Array(m).fill(0));
}
console.log(arr);
var myArray = [
["cats","dogs","monkeys","horses"],
["apples","oranges","pears","bananas"]
];
document.write(myArray[0][2]) //returns "monkeys"
Two things:
1) The array length property improperly reports the array length if called after the var myArray = [[],[]]; statement. Technically, since the empty arrays are defined, they are getting counted by the length property, but in the spirit of the length property it really should return 0, because no non-empty elements have been added to any of the arrays.
A minimum work around is to use two nested for( in ) loops, one for the 1st array and one for the 2nd array, and to count the non-undefined elements.
2) Extending Siamak A.Motlagh example and adding a arr([2][4]) = 'Hi Mr.C'; assignment fails with an "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property '4' of undefined" error.
See the jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/howardb1/zq8oL2ds/
Here is a copy of that code:
var arr = [[],[]];
alert( arr.length ); // wrong!
var c = 0;
for( var i in arr )
for( var j in arr[ i ] )
if( arr[ i ][ j ] != undefined )
++c;
alert( c ); // correct
arr[0][2] = 'Hi Mr.A';
alert(arr[0][2]);
arr[1][3] = 'Hi Mr.B';
alert(arr[1][3]);
arr[2][4] = 'Hi Mr.C'; // At this point I'm getting VM558:62 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property '4' of undefined
alert(arr[2][4]);
var c = 0;
for( var i in arr )
for( var j in arr[ i ] )
if( arr[ i ][ j ] != undefined )
++c;
alert( c );
Why does the third assignment fail? What about the [[],[]] creation statement told it that the first array was valid for 0 and 1, but not 2 or that 2 and 3 were ok for the second array, but not 4?
Most importantly, how would I define an Array in an Array that could hold date objects in the first and second arrays. I'm using the jQuery-UI DatePicker, which expects an array of dates, as in date objects, which I've extended to use a second date array to contain date objects that contain times so I can keep track of multiple dates, and multiple times per day.
Thanks.
The functions I use
function get_empty_2d_array(numRows, numColumnns) {
return [...Array(numRows)].map(e => Array(numColumnns));
}
function get_2d_array_filled(numRows, numColumnns, fillValue) {
return [...Array(numRows)].map(e => Array(numColumnns).fill(fillValue));
}
This also works as an expression:
var twoDarr= new Array(desiredLength);
for (i=0;i<twoDarr.length;i++) {twoDarr[i]=[];}
I don't know how it pars in terms of performance with the rest of the answers here, if you have a clue let me know in the comments.
If you don't know the length of the array beforehand pls have in mind that you can use either push([]), or splice() if you want to push/remove/replace a new element in place of an existing one.
const grid = new Array(n).fill(new Array(n))

Remove value from js array without reordering keys

I have an array, and I want to remove just one element, but without reordering keys. Is there an easy way without using delete or rebuilding the entire array?
Or alternatively clean up after delete to get rid of the undefined values, fixing the length again.
var array = ["valueone", "valuetwo"];
console.dir(array); // keys 0 and 1
array.splice(0, 1);
console.dir(array); // key 1 is now 0, do not want!
You can delete the elements of an array:
a = ['one', 'two'];
delete a[0];
// a is now [undefined, 'two'];
alternatively, set a[0] explicitly to undefined.
Note that an arrays .length parameter is automatically maintained by the system. If you intentionally set it to a higher number, you'll just get a whole load of undefined values for the missing keys:
a.length = 10;
// a is now [undefined, 'two', undefined x 8]
If these semantics are not acceptable to you, then you should consider using an Object instead. This will preserve your keys, and perhaps be more efficient, but you lose the .length property.
couldn't you just explicitly set the value to undefined or null or an empty string. What are you trying to achieve?
var arr = ['aaaa','bbb','ccc','ddd'];
arr[0]= undefined;
//or
arr[0]= null;
///or
arr[0]= "";
arr.length; <--- 4
Update 2018-09-07
This answer isn't very good, in my opinion. I provided an answer on How do I remove a property from a JavaScript Object that has received much more attention from me over the years and covers this case and goes into much more detail.
The point is, you should be using Array.prototype.splice and Array.prototype.slice.
array.splice(start, n) returns a subset of array from index start with n sequential elements, and removes this subset from the original array, creating a new array in the process.
let array = [1,2,3,4,5,6];
array.splice(2,3); // [3,4,5]
array; // [1,2,6]
array.slice(start, end) returns a subset of array from index start to index end without mutating the original. The behavior is a little different from splice, which is why I prefer to call it as array.slice(start, start + n).
let array = [1,2,3,4,5,6];
array.slice(2, 2 + 3); // [3,4,5]
array; // [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Of course you could set the index to a sentinel value like null or "", but if you are wanting the array to stay in the same order after a deletion, perhaps you should change your approach--why does "valuetwo" have to be at index 1? What useful information is even being held in this data structure if the contents are always the same as the keys needed to access them?
The original answer is below. And if I am going to keep the original text, perhaps I should elaborate on why it's bad advice.
You can use javascript's delete keyword.
delete array[index];
Don't do this. If your array is homogeneous (as it ought to be), then this will corrupt your array by introducing a second type (undefined). You should use array.splice() as discussed above, which will create a new array with the specified range omitted.
Unfortunately, this creates an undefined index inside of the array
var arr = ['pie', 'cake', 'fish'];
delete arr[1];
arr; // ['pie', undefined, 'fish']
Case in point.
You could also do this:
var arr = [9,8,7,6];
arr[1] = null;
arr; // [9,null,7,6]
arr.length; // 4
var i = -1;
while(++i < arr.length){
if(arr[i] && typeof(arr[i] === "number")){
alert(arr[i]);
}
}
You could, but you shouldn't. Not only is this unnecessary, and doesn't do anything useful (because all it's doing is calling alert), but it's actually broken.
if(arr[i] && typeof(arr[i] === "number")){
alert(arr[i]);
}
You might expect this to only print our element if it is a non-zero number, but will in fact also run for values like "foo", [] and document.createElement("p"), because typeof(arr[i] === "number") will always return the value "boolean", which is a non-empty string, which is truthy and will therefore evaluate true. Which means the only requirement for alert to be called is that arr[i] is truthy. There are only six values in the entire language that will cause this if statement to not execute, and those are:
undefined
null
0
"" (pronounced "empty string")
false
NaN
Or, if you don't NEED to use arrays, you could use an object and make everything easier:
var obj = {
0: "first",
1: "second",
2: "third"
};
delete obj[1];
obj; // {0: "first", 2: "third"}
for(var i in obj){
alert(obj[i]);
}
Which would instantaneously erase all of the advantages to using an array. Now you have a data set which may or may not be heterogeneous, which can't be filtered, mapped, reduced or transformed in any sane way, and you have to resort to things like for(i in obj) (which is extremely bug-prone if you dare to use a library like jQuery) to iterate over it. Luckily today we have fancy stuff like Object.keys(obj).map(k => obj[k]).forEach(function(el){ ... }), but that's no excuse to have bad data structures.
To get the length of an object:
getLength = function(obj){
var i = 0, l = 0;
for(i in obj){
l++;
}
return l;
}
getLength(obj); // 3
Again, with arrays, this is unnecessary.
But remember that objects sort their indices by date of creation, not > by name. This shouldn't result in a road block, though.
To sort the indices of an object alphabetically:
sortObject = function (){
var arr = [], i;
for(i in this){
arr.push({index:i,content:this[i]});
delete this[i];
}
arr.sort();
for(i in arr){
var item = arr[i];
this[item.index] = item.content;
}
return this; // make chainable
}
var obj = {
acronym: "OOP",
definition: "Object-Oriented Programming",
article: "http://wikipedia.org/OOP"
};
sortObject.apply(obj); // indices are "acronym", "article", "definition"
array.sort(fn)
The whole point of an object is that its properties are unsorted, anyway. Sorting an unsorted list will hardly do anything useful.
Just to illustrate how much better arrays are at doing array things:
let array = ["pie", "cake", "fish", "brownie", "beef", ...];
/* do some stuff... */
array
.filter(el => exclude.indexOf(el) === -1)
.forEach(function(el){
console.log(el);
});
if exclude is ["cake", "brownie"], then this will log the following to the console:
pie
fish
beef
...
Just try to imagine how many unnecessary lines of code it would take to do the same using the approach from the previous version of this answer.
Hope this helped
Hopefully this update helped.

JavaScript Array

I usually script/program using python but have recently begun programming with JavaScript and have run into some problems while working with arrays.
In python, when I create an array and use for x in y I get this:
myarray = [5,4,3,2,1]
for x in myarray:
print x
and I get the expected output of:
5
4
3
..n
But my problem is that when using Javascript I get a different and completely unexpected (to me) result:
var world = [5,4,3,2,1]
for (var num in world) {
alert(num);
}
and I get the result:
0
1
2
..n
How can I get JavaScript to output num as the value in the array like python and why is this happening?
JavaScript and Python are different, and you do things in different ways between them.
In JavaScript, you really should (almost) always iterate over an array with a numeric index:
for (var i = 0; i < array.length; ++i)
alert(array[i]);
The "for ... in" construct in JavaScript gives you the keys of the object, not the values. It's tricky to use on an array because it operates on the array as an object, treating it no differently than any other sort of object. Thus, if the array object has additional properties — which is completely "legal" and not uncommon — your loop will pick those up in addition to the indexes of the "normal" array contents.
The variable num contains the array item's index, not the value. So you'd want:
alert(world[num])
to retrieve the value
The for var in... loop in JavaScript puts the keys in the variable instead of the actual value. So when using for var ... you should do something like this:
var world = [5, 4, 3, 2, 1];
for ( var key in world ) {
var value = world[key];
alert(key + " = " + value);
}
And note that this way of looping is best used when you're using objects instead of arrays. For arrays use the common:
for ( var i = 0, j = arr.length; i < j; i++ ) { ... }
Or if you're targeting modern browser you can use the forEach-method of arrays:
var arr = [1, 2, 3];
arr.forEach(function(num) {
alert(num);
});
The for...in loop loops over all key elements; not the values.
I would recommend you to use
for(var i=0; i<arr.length; i++){
alert(arr[i]);
}
When you use the in operator num becomes a key. So simply use this key to get a value out of the array.
var world = [5,4,3,2,1]
for (var num in world) {
alert(world[num]);
}
try this.
var world = [5,4,3,2,1]
for(var i=0;i<world.length;i++){
alert(world[i])
}
Because javascript in your case is printing the index of the element, not the value.
the result you got is just element index,if you want to get element value
your code should like this
var world = [5,4,3,2,1]
for (var num in world) {
alert(world[num]);
}
The for in iteration in JavaScript works only for the object data type. The way it works is that it lets you iterate over the attributes of an object. arrays are objects in JavaScript, but the for in only works on its attributes, not the array values.
For example you might define an array as such:
var arr = [1,2,3];
And you can assign attributes to this array, because it's actually an object:
arr.foo = "bar";
arr["1"] = 2;
Now when you use the for in iteration method you will be able to iterate over the attributes we just assigned above;
for(var i in arr) console.log(i);
To iterate over the actual array values you need to use the for(var i=0; i<arr.length; i++) construct.
Hope this helps.
In javascript it's advised to loop Arrays different from looping Objects. You are using an object loop, which may return unexpected result (for instance if the Array.prototype was extended with custom methods you would iterate those too, and it does't guarantee the order of the array is preserved). There are many ways to loop through an array, using it's index:
// regular
var arr = [1,2,3,4,5]
,i
;
for (i=0;i<arr.length;i++) {
console.log(arr[i]);
}
// using while
var arr = [1,2,3,4,5]
,i = 0
;
while ((i = i + 1)<arr.length) {
console.log(arr[i]);
}
// using while reversed
var arr = [1,2,3,4,5]
,i = arr.length
;
while ((i = i - 1) > -1) {
console.log(arr[i]);
}
Note: Why not use i++ or i--? To avoid confusion, index out of range-errors and to satisfy JSLint

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