Counting the occurrences / frequency of array elements

Question

In Javascript, I\'m trying to take an initial array of number values and count the elements inside it. Ideally, the result would be two new arrays, the first specifying each

Answer 1

Here is a way to count occurrences inside an array of objects. It also places the first array's contents inside a new array to sort the values so that the order in the original array is not disrupted. Then a recursive function is used to go through each element and count the quantity property of each object inside the array.

var big_array = [
  { name: "Pineapples", quantity: 3 },
  { name: "Pineapples", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Bananas", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Limes", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Bananas", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Pineapples", quantity: 2 },
  { name: "Pineapples", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Bananas", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Bananas", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Bananas", quantity: 5 },
  { name: "Coconuts", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Lemons", quantity: 2 },
  { name: "Oranges", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Lemons", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Limes", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Grapefruit", quantity: 1 },
  { name: "Coconuts", quantity: 5 },
  { name: "Oranges", quantity: 6 }
];

function countThem() {
  var names_array = [];
  for (var i = 0; i < big_array.length; i++) {
    names_array.push( Object.assign({}, big_array[i]) );
  }

  function outerHolder(item_array) {
    if (item_array.length > 0) {
      var occurrences = [];
      var counter = 0;
      var bgarlen = item_array.length;
      item_array.sort(function(a, b) { return (a.name > b.name) ? 1 : ((b.name > a.name) ? -1 : 0); });

      function recursiveCounter() {
        occurrences.push(item_array[0]);
        item_array.splice(0, 1);
        var last_occurrence_element = occurrences.length - 1;
        var last_occurrence_entry = occurrences[last_occurrence_element].name;
        var occur_counter = 0;
        var quantity_counter = 0;
        for (var i = 0; i < occurrences.length; i++) {
          if (occurrences[i].name === last_occurrence_entry) {
            occur_counter = occur_counter + 1;
            if (occur_counter === 1) {
              quantity_counter = occurrences[i].quantity;
            } else {
              quantity_counter = quantity_counter + occurrences[i].quantity;
            }
          }
        }

        if (occur_counter > 1) {
          var current_match = occurrences.length - 2;
          occurrences[current_match].quantity = quantity_counter;
          occurrences.splice(last_occurrence_element, 1);
        }

        counter = counter + 1;

        if (counter < bgarlen) {
          recursiveCounter();
        }
      }

      recursiveCounter();

      return occurrences;
    }
  }
  alert(JSON.stringify(outerHolder(names_array)));
}