For example, how do I achieve the following without iterating over the array?
var a = [1, 2, 3] * 5; // a should equal [5, 10, 15]
For example, how do I achieve the following without iterating over the array?
var a = [1, 2, 3] * 5; // a should equal [5, 10, 15]
Array.map()
is available to IE users as of IE9, so if you don't care about compatibility at all you can use this:
var a = [1, 2, 3].map(function(x) { return x * 5; });
For JavaScript 1.8, this is as short as you can go:
var a = [1, 2, 3].map(function(x) x * 5);
If you need maximal browser compatibility, you'll have to put up with a loop.
Either way you'll be iterating over the array; Array.map()
just makes it less obvious you're doing so.
for(var i=0; i<a.length; i++) { a[i] *= 5; }
Fast-forward to 2016, when support for ECMAScript 6 is getting better:
If you use babeljs or TypeScript in your project to cross-compile your code to ES5 or you don't need to support old browsers and Internet Explorer (Edge has support), you can use ES6 arrow functions:
var a = [1, 2, 3]; var b = a.map(x => x * 5); // ^^^^^^^^^^ console.log(b); // [5, 10, 15]
Arrow functions are a syntactic sugar for an inline function with lexical this
binding:
// ES6 array2 = array.map(x => x * 5);
// ES5 array2 = array.map((function (x) { return x * 5; }).bind(this));
Ecmascript 2016 (ES7) defines SIMD mathematics which allow to do multiplications like the one you desire faster and easier. However, as of today there is very little browser support for SIMD (only Firefox nightly builds support this) [1], [2]. This is how it will look like:
var a = SIMD.Float32x4(1, 2, 3); var b = SIMD.Float32x4(5, 5, 5); SIMD.Float32x4.mul(a, b); // Float32x4[5, 10, 15]
Until there will be widespread support for SIMD you'd have to resort to using map
var a = [1, 2, 3].map(function(x) { return x * 5; });
which is nicely supported by all modern browsers [3].
You can use .map but you also have to create a new variable to throw the new values in:
var a = [1,2,3]; var b = a.map(function(x){ return x * 5; }); alert(b);
var a, i, ii, term; a = [1,2,3]; term = 5; for (i=0, ii=a.length; i<ii; i++) { a[i] = a[i] * term; }
You can try this:
function scalarMultiply(arr, multiplier) { for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) { arr[i] *= multiplier; } return arr; }
USAGE
var a = scalarMultiply([1, 2, 3], 5);
As stated in Docs:
The
map()
method creates a new array with the results of calling a provided function on every element in the calling array.
In my opinion, .map()
is more suitable if someone wants to create a new array based on input values from the current array.
However, if someone wants to modify the array in place, .forEach()
seems a better choice.
In ES6 we may use:
Following code will modify a given array arr
in place (without creating a new one):
arr.forEach((value, index) => {arr[index] *= 5});
Demo:
var arr = [1, 2, 3]; var scalar = 5; arr.forEach((value, index) => { arr[index] *= scalar; }); console.log(arr);
Using Lodash's map function, this returns the original array a, multiplied by the constant 5:
_.map( a, function multiply(x){ return x*5; } );