Remove empty elements from an array in Javascript

Question

How do I remove empty elements from an array in JavaScript?

Is there a straightforward way, or do I need to loop through it and remove them manually?

Answer 1

When using the highest voted answer above, first example, i was getting individual characters for string lengths greater than 1. Below is my solution for that problem.

var stringObject = ["", "some string yay", "", "", "Other string yay"];
stringObject = stringObject.filter(function(n){ return n.length > 0});

Instead of not returning if undefined, we return if length is greater than 0. Hope that helps somebody out there.

Returns

["some string yay", "Other string yay"]

Answer 2

This works, I tested it in AppJet (you can copy-paste the code on its IDE and press "reload" to see it work, don't need to create an account)

/* appjet:version 0.1 */
function Joes_remove(someArray) {
    var newArray = [];
    var element;
    for( element in someArray){
        if(someArray[element]!=undefined ) {
            newArray.push(someArray[element]);
        }
    }
    return newArray;
}

var myArray2 = [1,2,,3,,3,,,0,,,4,,4,,5,,6,,,,];

print("Original array:", myArray2);
print("Clenased array:", Joes_remove(myArray2) );
/*
Returns: [1,2,3,3,0,4,4,5,6]
*/

Answer 3

Simple ways:

var arr = [1,2,,3,,-3,null,,0,,undefined,4,,4,,5,,6,,,,];


arr.filter(n => n)
// [1, 2, 3, -3, 4, 4, 5, 6]

arr.filter(Number) 
// [1, 2, 3, -3, 4, 4, 5, 6]

arr.filter(Boolean) 
// [1, 2, 3, -3, 4, 4, 5, 6]

or - (only for single array items of type "text")

['','1','2',3,,'4',,undefined,,,'5'].join('').split(''); 
// output:  ["1","2","3","4","5"]

or - Classic way: simple iteration

var arr = [1,2,null, undefined,3,,3,,,0,,,[],,{},,5,,6,,,,],
    len = arr.length, i;

for(i = 0; i < len; i++ )
    arr[i] && arr.push(arr[i]);  // copy non-empty values to the end of the array

arr.splice(0 , len);  // cut the array and leave only the non-empty values

arr // [1,2,3,3,[],Object{},5,6]

via jQuery:

var arr = [1,2,,3,,3,,,0,,,4,,4,,5,,6,,,,];

arr = $.grep(arr,function(n){ return n == 0 || n });

arr // [1, 2, 3, 3, 0, 4, 4, 5, 6]

UPDATE - just another fast, cool way (using ES6):

var arr = [1,2,null, undefined,3,,3,,,0,,,4,,4,,5,,6,,,,], 
    temp = [];

for(let i of arr)
    i && temp.push(i); // copy each non-empty value to the 'temp' array

arr = temp;
delete temp; // discard the variable

arr // [1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6]

Remove empty values

['foo', '',,,'',,null, ' ', 3, true, [], [1], {}, undefined, ()=>{}].filter(String)

// ["foo", null, " ", 3, true, [1], Object {}, undefined, ()=>{}]

Answer 4

What about that:

js> [1,2,,3,,3,,,0,,,4,,4,,5,,6,,,,].filter(String).join(',')
1,2,3,3,0,4,4,5,6

Answer 5

Filtering out invalid entries with a regular expression

array = array.filter(/\w/);
filter + regexp

Answer 6

This might help you : https://lodash.com/docs/4.17.4#remove

var details = [
            {
                reference: 'ref-1',
                description: 'desc-1',
                price: 1
            }, {
                reference: '',
                description: '',
                price: ''
            }, {
                reference: 'ref-2',
                description: 'desc-2',
                price: 200
            }, {
                reference: 'ref-3',
                description: 'desc-3',
                price: 3
            }, {
                reference: '',
                description: '',
                price: ''
            }
        ];

        scope.removeEmptyDetails(details);
        expect(details.length).toEqual(3);

---

scope.removeEmptyDetails = function(details){
            _.remove(details, function(detail){
                return (_.isEmpty(detail.reference) && _.isEmpty(detail.description) && _.isEmpty(detail.price));
            });
        };