Removing element from JS array of objects

Question

So I have something like this defined

var myList = []; 
//I populate it like this
myList.push({ prop1: value1, 
 prop2: value2,
 prop3: value3
});

Is it possible to remove items from the list, based on prop1 value w/o searching through the array?

Answer 1

No. You must loop over the array in some fashion, checking the properties of each object within, and perform removal as you hit them.

Answer 2

Here you go:

myList = myList.filter( function ( obj ) {
 return obj.prop1 !== value;
});

where value is the value that you're testing against.

Live demo: http://jsfiddle.net/LBYfa/

So, if the value of the 'prop1' property is equal to the value that you're testing against, obj.prop1 !== value will evaluate to false and that element will be filtered out.

• JAAulde: Array.prototype.filter is not available many widely deployed browsers. ( developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/… ) Note that suggested shim code does as I said would be necessary--loops the array.
• Šime Vidas: @JAAulde Yes, the filter method iterates over all array elements. That's generally how it works, it's not just the shim.

Answer 3

Does this help:

Array.prototype.remove = function(s) {
 var i = this.indexOf(s);
 if(i != -1) this.splice(i, 1);
}

• JAAulde: That does not help as the OP is desiring to remove objects from an array based on properties of those objects. It is also questionable practice to modify the prototype of native objects, though there is much debate on both sides of that issue.

Answer 4

Is it required that myList have index of integral type? Might you instead use key => value pairs - that is, an associative array with the value of prop1 as the key? How likely is it that prop1 will be unique? If it's unlikely, consider implementing a multimap.