Is there a fast way to delete a specific value from an array in Javascript?

Question

I have an array

var array = ["google","chrome","os","windows","os"];

I want to delete the value "chrome" from the array without the array becoming a string. Is there a way to do this?

• ChessWhiz: I find it hard to believe that someone named Chromedude would want to delete Chrome from his array.
• chromedude: @ChessWhiz haha, did not even think of that, but it is in my array and it does need to be deleted :)

Answer 1

There's no faster way than finding it and then removing it. Finding it you can do with a loop or (in implementations that support it) indexOf. Removing it you can do with splice.

Live example: http://jsbin.com/anuta3/2

var array, index;
array = ["google","chrome","os","windows","os"];
if (array.indexOf) {
 index = array.indexOf("chrome");
}
else {
 for (index = array.length - 1; index >= 0; --index) {
 if (array[index] === "chrome") {
 break;
 }
 }
}
if (index >= 0) {
 array.splice(index, 1);
}

• David Thomas: Would that work in IE? I seem to recall seeing somewhere that it doesn't/didn't support indexOf?
• DashK: Like TJ mentioned, not all browsers have indexOf implemented. You might need to implement your own.
• T.J. Crowder: @David: Not all implementations have it, hence the "with a loop" part of the answer. :-) Usually I just add indexOf to Array.prototype if it's not already there.
• chromedude: @DashK I am assuming its supported in firefox. Is that correct?
• T.J. Crowder: @chromedude: Yes (in fact, I linked to the MDC documentation for it in the answer)

Answer 2

This wraps it up into a convenient function:

function remove_element(array, item) {
 for (var i = 0; i < array.length; ++i) {
 if (array[i] === item) {
 array.splice(i, 1);
 return;
 }
 }
}
var array = ["google", "chrome", "os", "windows", "os"];
remove_element(array, "chrome");

or (for browsers that support indexOf):

function remove_element(array, item) {
 var index = array.indexOf(item);
 if (-1 !== index) {
 array.splice(index, 1);
 }
}

Edit: Fixed up with === and !==.

• Matt Ball: You should really be using === and !== instead of == and !=, respectively.
• Dagg Nabbit: @Bears will eat you: No need for !== in (-1 !== index) ... index is known to be a number, because that's all indexOf will return, and -1 is known to be an number. So there's no need for strict comparison. I usually prefer something like (index > -1); YMMV.

Answer 3

Use the splice method of the Array class.

array.splice(1, 1);

Answer 4

The splice() method adds and/or removes elements to/from an array, and returns the removed element(s).

array.splice(indexOfElement,noOfItemsToBeRemoved);

in your case

 array.splice(1, 1);

Answer 5

You may want to remove all of the items that match your string, or maybe remove items that pass or fail some test expression. Array.prototype.filter, or a substitute, is quick and versatile:

var array= ["google","chrome","os","windows","os"],
b= array.filter(function(itm){
 return 'os'!= itm
});
alert(b)

Answer 6

You didn't mention whether its required to retain the indices of the remaining elements in your array or not. On the basis that you can deal with having undefined members of an array, you can do:

var array = ["google","chrome","os","windows","os"];
delete array[1];

array[1] will then be undefined.