Fastest way to duplicate an array in JavaScript - slice vs. 'for' loop

Question

In order to duplicate an array in JavaScript: which of the following is faster to use?

###Slice method

var dup_array = original_array.slice();
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Answer 1

        const arr = ['1', '2', '3'];

         // Old way
        const cloneArr = arr.slice();

        // ES6 way
        const cloneArrES6 = [...arr];

// But problem with 3rd approach is that if you are using muti-dimensional 
 // array, then only first level is copied

        const nums = [
              [1, 2], 
              [10],
         ];

        const cloneNums = [...nums];

// Let's change the first item in the first nested item in our cloned array.

        cloneNums[0][0] = '8';

        console.log(cloneNums);
           // [ [ '8', 2 ], [ 10 ], [ 300 ] ]

        // NOOooo, the original is also affected
        console.log(nums);
          // [ [ '8', 2 ], [ 10 ], [ 300 ] ]

So, in order to avoid these scenarios to happen, use

        const arr = ['1', '2', '3'];

        const cloneArr = Array.from(arr);

Answer 2

It depends on the browser. If you look in the blog post Array.prototype.slice vs manual array creation, there is a rough guide to performance of each:

Results:

Answer 3

Answer 4

If you want a REAL cloned object/array in JS with cloned references of all attributes and sub-objects:

export function clone(arr) {
    return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(arr))
}

ALL other operations do not create clones, because they just change the base address of the root element, not of the included objects.

Except you traverse recursive through the object-tree.

For a simple copy, these are OK. For storage address relevant operations I suggest (and in most all other cases, because this is fast!) to type convert into string and back in a complete new object.

Answer 5

Easiest way to deep clone Array or Object:

var dup_array = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(original_array))

Answer 6

Take a look at: link. It's not about speed, but comfort. Besides as you can see you can only use slice(0) on primitive types.

To make an independent copy of an array rather than a copy of the refence to it, you can use the array slice method.

Example:

To make an independent copy of an array rather than a copy of the refence to it, you can use the array slice method.

var oldArray = ["mip", "map", "mop"];
var newArray = oldArray.slice();

To copy or clone an object :

function cloneObject(source) {
    for (i in source) {
        if (typeof source[i] == 'source') {
            this[i] = new cloneObject(source[i]);
        }
        else{
            this[i] = source[i];
  }
    }
}

var obj1= {bla:'blabla',foo:'foofoo',etc:'etc'};
var obj2= new cloneObject(obj1);

Source: link