Remove empty elements from an array in Javascript

Question

How do I remove empty elements from an array in JavaScript?

Is there a straightforward way, or do I need to loop through it and remove them manually?

Answer 1

Just ES6 and newer versions method, assume array is below:

 const arr = [1,2,3,undefined,4,5,6,undefined,7,8,undefined,undefined,0,9];

Simple way:

 const clearArray = arr.filter( i => i );

Answer 2

Removing all empty elements

If an array contains empty Objects, Arrays, and Strings alongside other empty elements, we can remove them with:

const arr = [ [], ['not', 'empty'], {}, { key: 'value' }, 0, 1, null, 2, "", "here", " ", 3, undefined, 3, , , , , , 4, , 4, , 5, , 6, , , ]

let filtered = JSON.stringify(
  arr.filter((obj) => {
    return ![null, undefined, ''].includes(obj)
  }).filter((el) => {
    return typeof el != "object" || Object.keys(el).length > 0
  })
)

console.log(JSON.parse(filtered))

Simple compacting (removing empty elements from an array)

With ES6:

const arr = [0, 1, null, 2, "", 3, undefined, 3, , , , , , 4, , 4, , 5, , 6, , , ,]

let filtered = arr.filter((obj) => { return ![null, undefined].includes(obj) })

console.log(filtered)

With plain Javascript ->

var arr = [0, 1, null, 2, "", 3, undefined, 3, , , , , , 4, , 4, , 5, , 6, , , ,]

var filtered = arr.filter(function (obj) { return ![null, undefined].includes(obj) })

console.log(filtered)

Answer 3

This might help you : https://lodash.com/docs/4.17.4#remove

var details = [
            {
                reference: 'ref-1',
                description: 'desc-1',
                price: 1
            }, {
                reference: '',
                description: '',
                price: ''
            }, {
                reference: 'ref-2',
                description: 'desc-2',
                price: 200
            }, {
                reference: 'ref-3',
                description: 'desc-3',
                price: 3
            }, {
                reference: '',
                description: '',
                price: ''
            }
        ];

        scope.removeEmptyDetails(details);
        expect(details.length).toEqual(3);

---

scope.removeEmptyDetails = function(details){
            _.remove(details, function(detail){
                return (_.isEmpty(detail.reference) && _.isEmpty(detail.description) && _.isEmpty(detail.price));
            });
        };

Answer 4

I'm simply adding my voice to the above “call ES5's Array..filter() with a global constructor” golf-hack, but I suggest using Object instead of String, Boolean, or Number as suggested above.

Specifically, ES5's filter() already doesn't trigger for undefined elements within the array; so a function that universally returns true, which returns all elements filter() hits, will necessarily only return non-undefined elements:

> [1,,5,6,772,5,24,5,'abc',function(){},1,5,,3].filter(function(){return true})
[1, 5, 6, 772, 5, 24, 5, 'abc', function (){}, 1, 5, 3]

However, writing out ...(function(){return true;}) is longer than writing ...(Object); and the return-value of the Object constructor will be, under any circumstances, some sort of object. Unlike the primitive-boxing-constructors suggested above, no possible object-value is falsey, and thus in a boolean setting, Object is a short-hand for function(){return true}.

> [1,,5,6,772,5,24,5,'abc',function(){},1,5,,3].filter(Object)
[1, 5, 6, 772, 5, 24, 5, 'abc', function (){}, 1, 5, 3]

Answer 5

var data= { 
    myAction: function(array){
        return array.filter(function(el){
           return (el !== (undefined || null || ''));
        }).join(" ");
    }
}; 
var string = data.myAction(["I", "am","", "working", "", "on","", "nodejs", "" ]);
console.log(string);

Output:

I am working on nodejs

It will remove empty element from array and display other element.

Answer 6

@Alnitak

Actually Array.filter works on all browsers if you add some extra code. See below.

var array = ["","one",0,"",null,0,1,2,4,"two"];

function isempty(x){
if(x!=="")
    return true;
}
var res = array.filter(isempty);
document.writeln(res.toJSONString());
// gives: ["one",0,null,0,1,2,4,"two"]  

This is the code you need to add for IE, but filter and Functional programmingis worth is imo.

//This prototype is provided by the Mozilla foundation and
//is distributed under the MIT license.
//http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/LICENSES/mit.license

if (!Array.prototype.filter)
{
  Array.prototype.filter = function(fun /*, thisp*/)
  {
    var len = this.length;
    if (typeof fun != "function")
      throw new TypeError();

    var res = new Array();
    var thisp = arguments[1];
    for (var i = 0; i < len; i++)
    {
      if (i in this)
      {
        var val = this[i]; // in case fun mutates this
        if (fun.call(thisp, val, i, this))
          res.push(val);
      }
    }

    return res;
  };
}