JavaScript function similar to Python range()

Question

Is there a function in JavaScript similar to Python\'s range()?

I think there should be a better way than to write the following lines every time:

Answer 1

Is there a function in JavaScript similar to Python's range()?

As answered before: no, there's not. But you can make your own. I believe this is an interesting approach for ES6. It works very similar to Python 2.7 range(), but it's much more dynamic.

function range(start, stop, step = 1) 
{
    // This will make the function behave as range(stop)
    if(arguments.length === 1)
    {
        return [...Array(arguments[0]).keys()]
    }

    // Adjusts step to go towards the stop value
    if((start > stop && !(step < 0)) ||
       (start < stop && !(step > 0)))
    {
        step *= -1
    }

    let returnArray = []
    // Checks if i is in the interval between start and stop no matter if stop
    // is lower than start or vice-versa
    for(let i = start; (i-start)*(i-stop) <= 0; i += step)
    {
        returnArray.push(i)
    }
    return returnArray
}

This function can behave in three different ways (just like Python's range()):

1. range(stop)
2. range(start, stop)
3. range(start, stop, step)

These examples:

console.log(range(5))
console.log(range(-2, 2))
console.log(range(2, -2))
console.log(range(10, 20, 2))

Will give you the following output:

[ 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 ]
[ -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 ]
[ 2, 1, 0, -1, -2 ]
[ 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 ]

Note that instead of iterating over the array with the in operator (like python), you have to use of. Thus the i variable assumes the value, and not the index, of the array's element.

for(let i of range(5))
{
    // do something with i...
}

Answer 2

Fusing together both answers from @Tadeck and @georg, I came up with this:

function* range(start, stop, step = 1) {
    if (stop == null) {
        // one param defined
        stop = start;
        start = 0;
    }

    for (let i = start; step > 0 ? i < stop : i > stop; i += step) {
        yield i;
    }
}

To use it in a for loop you need the ES6/JS1.7 for-of loop:

for (let i of range(5)) {
    console.log(i);
}
// Outputs => 0 1 2 3 4

for (let i of range(0, 10, 2)) {
    console.log(i);
}
// Outputs => 0 2 4 6 8

for (let i of range(10, 0, -2)) {
    console.log(i);
}
// Outputs => 10 8 6 4 2

Answer 3

Here's how i do it

let n = 5 
[...Array(n).keys()].map(x=>{console.log(x)})

output

0
1
2
3
4

Answer 4

No, there is none, but you can make one.

I'm partial to Python3 behavior of range. You will find below JavaScript's implementation of Python's range():

function* range(start=0, end=undefined, step=1) {    
    if(arguments.length === 1) {end = start, start = 0}    
    
    [...arguments].forEach(arg => {    
        if( typeof arg !== 'number') {throw new TypeError("Invalid argument")}                               
    })    
    if(arguments.length === 0) {throw new TypeError("More arguments neede")}    
        
    if(start >= end) return                                                                                                                                     
    yield start    
    yield* range(start + step, end, step)    
}    
         
// Use Cases
console.log([...range(5)])

console.log([...range(2, 5)])

console.log([...range(2, 5, 2)])
console.log([...range(2,3)])
// You can, of course, iterate through the range instance.

Answer 5

pythonic mimics the Python range behaviour best it can using JS' generators (yield), supporting both the range(stop) and range(start, stop, step) use cases. In addition, pythonic's range function returns an Iterator object similar to Python that supports map and filter, so one could do fancy one-liners like:

import {range} from 'pythonic';
// ...
const results = range(5).map(wouldBeInvokedFiveTimes);
// `results` is now an array containing elements from
// 5 calls to wouldBeInvokedFiveTimes

Install using npm:

npm install --save pythonic

Disclosure I'm author and maintainer of Pythonic

Answer 6

You may use underscore library. It contains dozens of useful functions for working with arrays and many more.