Move an array element from one array position to another

Question

I\'m having a hard time figuring out how to move an array element. For example, given the following:

var arr = [ \'a\', \'b\', \'c\', \'d\', \'e\'];
<         


        

Answer 1

Here's a one liner I found on JSPerf....

Array.prototype.move = function(from, to) {
    this.splice(to, 0, this.splice(from, 1)[0]);
};

which is awesome to read, but if you want performance (in small data sets) try...

 Array.prototype.move2 = function(pos1, pos2) {
    // local variables
    var i, tmp;
    // cast input parameters to integers
    pos1 = parseInt(pos1, 10);
    pos2 = parseInt(pos2, 10);
    // if positions are different and inside array
    if (pos1 !== pos2 && 0 <= pos1 && pos1 <= this.length && 0 <= pos2 && pos2 <= this.length) {
      // save element from position 1
      tmp = this[pos1];
      // move element down and shift other elements up
      if (pos1 < pos2) {
        for (i = pos1; i < pos2; i++) {
          this[i] = this[i + 1];
        }
      }
      // move element up and shift other elements down
      else {
        for (i = pos1; i > pos2; i--) {
          this[i] = this[i - 1];
        }
      }
      // put element from position 1 to destination
      this[pos2] = tmp;
    }
  }

I can't take any credit, it should all go to Richard Scarrott. It beats the splice based method for smaller data sets in this performance test. It is however significantly slower on larger data sets as Darwayne points out.

Answer 2

My 2c. Easy to read, it works, it's fast, it doesn't create new arrays.

function move(array, from, to) {
  if( to === from ) return array;

  var target = array[from];                         
  var increment = to < from ? -1 : 1;

  for(var k = from; k != to; k += increment){
    array[k] = array[k + increment];
  }
  array[to] = target;
  return array;
}

Answer 3

This is based on @Reid's solution. Except:

• I'm not changing the Array prototype.
• Moving an item out of bounds to the right does not create undefined items, it just moves the item to the right-most position.

Function:

function move(array, oldIndex, newIndex) {
    if (newIndex >= array.length) {
        newIndex = array.length - 1;
    }
    array.splice(newIndex, 0, array.splice(oldIndex, 1)[0]);
    return array;
}

Unit tests:

describe('ArrayHelper', function () {
    it('Move right', function () {
        let array = [1, 2, 3];
        arrayHelper.move(array, 0, 1);
        assert.equal(array[0], 2);
        assert.equal(array[1], 1);
        assert.equal(array[2], 3);
    })
    it('Move left', function () {
        let array = [1, 2, 3];
        arrayHelper.move(array, 1, 0);
        assert.equal(array[0], 2);
        assert.equal(array[1], 1);
        assert.equal(array[2], 3);
    });
    it('Move out of bounds to the left', function () {
        let array = [1, 2, 3];
        arrayHelper.move(array, 1, -2);
        assert.equal(array[0], 2);
        assert.equal(array[1], 1);
        assert.equal(array[2], 3);
    });
    it('Move out of bounds to the right', function () {
        let array = [1, 2, 3];
        arrayHelper.move(array, 1, 4);
        assert.equal(array[0], 1);
        assert.equal(array[1], 3);
        assert.equal(array[2], 2);
    });
});

Answer 4

Array.move.js

Summary

Moves elements within an array, returning an array containing the moved elements.

Syntax

array.move(index, howMany, toIndex);

Parameters

index: Index at which to move elements. If negative, index will start from the end.

howMany: Number of elements to move from index.

toIndex: Index of the array at which to place the moved elements. If negative, toIndex will start from the end.

Usage

array = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g"];

array.move(3, 2, 1); // returns ["d","e"]

array; // returns ["a", "d", "e", "b", "c", "f", "g"]

Polyfill

Array.prototype.move || Object.defineProperty(Array.prototype, "move", {
    value: function (index, howMany, toIndex) {
        var
        array = this,
        index = parseInt(index) || 0,
        index = index < 0 ? array.length + index : index,
        toIndex = parseInt(toIndex) || 0,
        toIndex = toIndex < 0 ? array.length + toIndex : toIndex,
        toIndex = toIndex <= index ? toIndex : toIndex <= index + howMany ? index : toIndex - howMany,
        moved;

        array.splice.apply(array, [toIndex, 0].concat(moved = array.splice(index, howMany)));

        return moved;
    }
});

Answer 5

As an addition to Reid's excellent answer (and because I cannot comment); You can use modulo to make both negative indices and too large indices "roll over":

function array_move(arr, old_index, new_index) {
  new_index =((new_index % arr.length) + arr.length) % arr.length;
  arr.splice(new_index, 0, arr.splice(old_index, 1)[0]);
  return arr; // for testing
}

// returns [2, 1, 3]
console.log(array_move([1, 2, 3], 0, 1)); 

Answer 6

I needed an immutable move method (one that didn't change the original array), so I adapted @Reid's accepted answer to simply use Object.assign to create a copy of the array before doing the splice.

Array.prototype.immutableMove = function (old_index, new_index) {
  var copy = Object.assign([], this);
  if (new_index >= copy.length) {
      var k = new_index - copy.length;
      while ((k--) + 1) {
          copy.push(undefined);
      }
  }
  copy.splice(new_index, 0, copy.splice(old_index, 1)[0]);
  return copy;
};

Here is a jsfiddle showing it in action.