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Most of the tutorials that I've read on arrays in JavaScript (including w3schools and devguru) suggest that you can initialize an array with a certain length by passing an integer to the Array constructor using the var test = new Array(4); syntax.

After using this syntax liberally in my js files, I ran one of the files through jsLint, and it freaked out:

Error: Problem at line 1 character 22: Expected ')' and instead saw '4'.
var test = new Array(4);
Problem at line 1 character 23: Expected ';' and instead saw ')'.
var test = new Array(4);
Problem at line 1 character 23: Expected an identifier and instead saw ')'.

After reading through jsLint's explanation of its behavior, it looks like jsLint doesn't really like the new Array() syntax, and instead prefers [] when declaring arrays.

So I have a couple questions:

First, why? Am I running any risk by using the new Array() syntax instead? Are there browser incompatibilities that I should be aware of?

And second, if I switch to the square bracket syntax, is there any way to declare an array and set its length all on one line, or do I have to do something like this:

var test = [];
test.length = 4;

Most of the tutorials that I've read on arrays in JavaScript (including w3schools and devguru) suggest that you can initialize an array with a certain length by passing an integer to the Array constructor using the var test = new Array(4); syntax.

After using this syntax liberally in my js files, I ran one of the files through jsLint, and it freaked out:

Error: Problem at line 1 character 22: Expected ')' and instead saw '4'.
var test = new Array(4);
Problem at line 1 character 23: Expected ';' and instead saw ')'.
var test = new Array(4);
Problem at line 1 character 23: Expected an identifier and instead saw ')'.

After reading through jsLint's explanation of its behavior, it looks like jsLint doesn't really like the new Array() syntax, and instead prefers [] when declaring arrays.

So I have a couple questions:

First, why? Am I running any risk by using the new Array() syntax instead? Are there browser incompatibilities that I should be aware of?

And second, if I switch to the square bracket syntax, is there any way to declare an array and set its length all on one line, or do I have to do something like this:

var test = [];
test.length = 4;
Share Improve this question edited Mar 1, 2020 at 13:37 simhumileco 34.4k17 gold badges147 silver badges123 bronze badges asked Jan 31, 2011 at 14:29 Michael Martin-SmuckerMichael Martin-Smucker 12.7k7 gold badges32 silver badges36 bronze badges 3
  • 1 standard js also advise against using new Array() in general, but it's okay with specifying size. I think it all comes down to code consistency through the whole context. – cregox Commented Apr 1, 2017 at 14:02
  • 1 For those looking to preallocate more rigid array structures, there are Typed Arrays. Note that performance benefits may vary – rovyko Commented Feb 27, 2019 at 23:51
  • Please take a look at the following benchmark which provides different solutions: measurethat.net/Benchmarks/Show/9721/0/… – AmazingTurtle Commented Sep 23, 2020 at 12:53
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21 Answers 21

Reset to default 1182
  • Array(5) gives you an array with length 5 but no values, hence you can't iterate over it.

  • Array.apply(null, Array(5)).map(function () {}) gives you an array with length 5 and undefined as values, now it can be iterated over.

  • Array.apply(null, Array(5)).map(function (x, i) { return i; }) gives you an array with length 5 and values 0,1,2,3,4.

  • Array(5).forEach(alert) does nothing, Array.apply(null, Array(5)).forEach(alert) gives you 5 alerts

  • ES6 gives us Array.from so now you can also use Array.from(Array(5)).forEach(alert)

  • If you want to initialize with a certain value, these are good to knows...
    Array.from('abcde'), Array.from('x'.repeat(5))
    or Array.from({length: 5}, (v, i) => i) // gives [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]

With ES2015 .fill() you can now simply do:

// `n` is the size you want to initialize your array
// `0` is what the array will be filled with (can be any other value)
Array(n).fill(0)

Which is a lot more concise than Array.apply(0, new Array(n)).map(i => value)

It is possible to drop the 0 in .fill() and run without arguments, which will fill the array with undefined. (However, this will fail in Typescript)

  1. Why do you want to initialize the length? Theoretically there is no need for this. It can even result in confusing behavior, because all tests that use the length to find out whether an array is empty or not will report that the array is not empty.
    Some tests show that setting the initial length of large arrays can be more efficient if the array is filled afterwards, but the performance gain (if any) seem to differ from browser to browser.

  2. jsLint does not like new Array() because the constructer is ambiguous.

    new Array(4);
    

    creates an empty array of length 4. But

    new Array('4');
    

    creates an array containing the value '4'.

Regarding your comment: In JS you don't need to initialize the length of the array. It grows dynamically. You can just store the length in some variable, e.g.

var data = [];
var length = 5; // user defined length

for(var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    data.push(createSomeObject());
}
[...Array(6)].map(x => 0);
// [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

OR

Array(6).fill(0);
// [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

Note: you can't loop empty slots i.e. Array(4).forEach(() => …)


OR

( typescript safe )

Array(6).fill(null).map((_, i) => i);
// [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

OR

Classic method using a function ( works in any browser )

function NewArray(size) {
    var x = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < size; ++i) {
        x[i] = i;
    }
    return x;
}

var a = NewArray(10);
// [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

Creating nested arrays

When creating a 2D array with the fill intuitively should create new instances. But what actually going to happen is the same array will be stored as a reference.

var a = Array(3).fill([6]);
// [  [6], [6], [6]  ]

a[0].push(9);
// [  [6, 9], [6, 9], [6, 9]  ]

Solution

var a = [...Array(3)].map(x => []);

a[0].push(4, 2);
// [  [4, 2], [], []  ]

So a 3x2 Array will look something like this:

[...Array(3)].map(x => Array(2).fill(0));
// [  [0, 0], [0, 0], [0, 0]  ]

N-dimensional array

function NArray(...dimensions) {
    var index = 0;
    function NArrayRec(dims) {
        var first = dims[0], next = dims.slice().splice(1); 
        if(dims.length > 1) 
            return Array(dims[0]).fill(null).map((x, i) => NArrayRec(next ));
        return Array(dims[0]).fill(null).map((x, i) => (index++));
    }
    return NArrayRec(dimensions);
}

var arr = NArray(3, 2, 4);
// [   [  [ 0,  1,  2,  3 ] , [  4,  5,  6,  7]  ],
//     [  [ 8,  9,  10, 11] , [ 12, 13, 14, 15]  ],
//     [  [ 16, 17, 18, 19] , [ 20, 21, 22, 23]  ]   ]

Initialize a chessboard

var Chessboard = [...Array(8)].map((x, j) => {
    return Array(8).fill(null).map((y, i) => {
        return `${String.fromCharCode(65 + i)}${8 - j}`;
    });
});

// [ [A8, B8, C8, D8, E8, F8, G8, H8],
//   [A7, B7, C7, D7, E7, F7, G7, H7],
//   [A6, B6, C6, D6, E6, F6, G6, H6],
//   [A5, B5, C5, D5, E5, F5, G5, H5],
//   [A4, B4, C4, D4, E4, F4, G4, H4],
//   [A3, B3, C3, D3, E3, F3, G3, H3],
//   [A2, B2, C2, D2, E2, F2, G2, H2],
//   [A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, H1] ]

Math filled values

handy little method overload when working with math


function NewArray( size , method, linear )
{
    method = method || ( i => i ); 
    linear = linear || false;
    var x = [];
    for( var i = 0; i < size; ++i )
        x[ i ] = method( linear ? i / (size-1) : i );
    return x;
}

NewArray( 4 ); 
// [ 0, 1, 2, 3 ]

NewArray( 4, Math.sin ); 
// [ 0, 0.841, 0.909, 0.141 ]

NewArray( 4, Math.sin, true );
// [ 0, 0.327, 0.618, 0.841 ]

var pow2 = ( x ) => x * x;

NewArray( 4, pow2 ); 
// [ 0, 1, 4, 9 ]

NewArray( 4, pow2, true ); 
// [ 0, 0.111, 0.444, 1 ]

The shortest:

let arr = [...Array(10)];
console.log(arr);

ES6 introduces Array.from which lets you create an Array from any "array-like" or iterables objects:

Array.from({length: 10}, (x, i) => i);
// [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

In this case {length: 10} represents the minimal definition of an "array-like" object: an empty object with just a length property defined.

Array.from allows for a second argument to map over the resulting array.

Sparse arrays are here!

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