javascriptfunctional-programming

What is the in-place alternative to Array.prototype.filter()


I've got an array that I would like to remove some elements from. I can't use Array.prototype.filter(), because I want to modify the array in place (because it saves a memory allocation and, more important for me, makes the code more simple in my use case). Is there an in-place alternative to filter that I can use, maybe analogously to how Array.prototype.forEach() can be used as an in-place variant to Array.prototype.map()?

Edit: Minimum example upon request:

function someCallback(array) {
  // do some stuff
  array.filterInPlace(function(elem) {
    var result = /* some logic */
    return result;
  })
  // do some more stuff
}

Solution

  • Is there an in-place alternative to filter

    No, but it's not hard to write your own. Here is an approach which squeezes out all the values which fail a condition.

    function filterInPlace(a, condition) {
      let i = 0, j = 0;
    
      while (i < a.length) {
        const val = a[i];
        if (condition(val, i, a)) a[j++] = val;
        i++;
      }
    
      a.length = j;
      return a;
    }
    

    condition is designed to have the same signature as the callback passed to Array#filter, namely (value, index, array). For complete compatibility with Array#filter, you could also accept a fourth thisArg parameter.

    Using forEach

    Using forEach has the minor advantage that it will skip empty slots. This version:

    function filterInPlace(a, condition, thisArg) {
      let j = 0;
    
      a.forEach((e, i) => { 
        if (condition.call(thisArg, e, i, a)) {
          if (i!==j) a[j] = e; 
          j++;
        }
      });
    
      a.length = j;
      return a;
    }
    
    a = [ 1,, 3 ];
    document.write('<br>[',a,']');
    
    filterInPlace(a, x=>true);
    document.write('<br>[',a,'] compaction when nothing changed');
    
    b = [ 1,,3,,5 ];
    document.write('<br>[',b,']');
    
    filterInPlace(b, x=>x!==5);
    document.write('<br>[',b,'] with 5 removed');