Transposing a 2D-array in JavaScript

Question

I've got an array of arrays, something like:

[
    [1,2,3],
    [1,2,3],
    [1,2,3],
]

I would like to transpose it to get the following array:

[
    [1,1,1],
    [2,2,2],
    [3,3,3],
]

It's not difficult to programmatically do so using loops:

function transposeArray(array, arrayLength){
    var newArray = [];
    for(var i = 0; i < array.length; i++){
        newArray.push([]);
    };

    for(var i = 0; i < array.length; i++){
        for(var j = 0; j < arrayLength; j++){
            newArray[j].push(array[i][j]);
        };
    };

    return newArray;
}

This, however, seems bulky, and I feel like there should be an easier way to do it. Is there?

Answer 1

Neat and pure:

[[0, 1], [2, 3], [4, 5]].reduce((prev, next) => next.map((item, i) =>
    (prev[i] || []).concat(next[i])
), []); // [[0, 2, 4], [1, 3, 5]]

Previous solutions may lead to failure in case an empty array is provided.

Here it is as a function:

function transpose(array) {
    return array.reduce((prev, next) => next.map((item, i) =>
        (prev[i] || []).concat(next[i])
    ), []);
}

console.log(transpose([[0, 1], [2, 3], [4, 5]]));

Update. It can be written even better with spread operator:

const transpose = matrix => matrix.reduce(($, row) =>
    row.map((_, i) => [...($[i] || []), row[i]]), 
    []
)

Answer 2

If you have an option of using Ramda JS and ES6 syntax, then here's another way to do it:

const transpose = a => R.map(c => R.map(r => r[c], a), R.keys(a[0]));

console.log(transpose([
  [1, 2, 3, 4],
  [5, 6, 7, 8],
  [9, 10, 11, 12]
])); // =>  [[1,5,9],[2,6,10],[3,7,11],[4,8,12]]

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/ramda/0.22.1/ramda.min.js"></script>

Answer 3

array[0].map((col, i) => array.map(row => row[i]));

map calls a provided callback function once for each element in an array, in order, and constructs a new array from the results. callback is invoked only for indexes of the array which have assigned values; it is not invoked for indexes which have been deleted or which have never been assigned values.

callback is invoked with three arguments: the value of the element, the index of the element, and the Array object being traversed. [source]

Answer 4

You can achieve this without loops by using the following.

• Array
• Array.prototype.map
• Array.prototype.reduce
• Array.prototype.join
• String.prototype.split

It looks very elegant and it does not require any dependencies such as jQuery of Underscore.js.

function transpose(matrix) {  
    return zeroFill(getMatrixWidth(matrix)).map(function(r, i) {
        return zeroFill(matrix.length).map(function(c, j) {
            return matrix[j][i];
        });
    });
}

function getMatrixWidth(matrix) {
    return matrix.reduce(function (result, row) {
        return Math.max(result, row.length);
    }, 0);
}

function zeroFill(n) {
    return new Array(n+1).join('0').split('').map(Number);
}

Minified

function transpose(m){return zeroFill(m.reduce(function(m,r){return Math.max(m,r.length)},0)).map(function(r,i){return zeroFill(m.length).map(function(c,j){return m[j][i]})})}function zeroFill(n){return new Array(n+1).join("0").split("").map(Number)}

---

Here is a demo I threw together. Notice the lack of loops :-)

// Create a 5 row, by 9 column matrix.
var m = CoordinateMatrix(5, 9);

// Make the matrix an irregular shape.
m[2] = m[2].slice(0, 5);
m[4].pop();

// Transpose and print the matrix.
println(formatMatrix(transpose(m)));

function Matrix(rows, cols, defaultVal) {
    return AbstractMatrix(rows, cols, function(r, i) {
        return arrayFill(cols, defaultVal);
    });
}
function ZeroMatrix(rows, cols) {
    return AbstractMatrix(rows, cols, function(r, i) {
        return zeroFill(cols);
    });
}
function CoordinateMatrix(rows, cols) {
    return AbstractMatrix(rows, cols, function(r, i) {
        return zeroFill(cols).map(function(c, j) {
            return [i, j];
        });
    });
}
function AbstractMatrix(rows, cols, rowFn) {
    return zeroFill(rows).map(function(r, i) {
        return rowFn(r, i);
    });
}
/** Matrix functions. */
function formatMatrix(matrix) {
    return matrix.reduce(function (result, row) {
        return result + row.join('\t') + '\n';
    }, '');
}
function copy(matrix) {  
    return zeroFill(matrix.length).map(function(r, i) {
        return zeroFill(getMatrixWidth(matrix)).map(function(c, j) {
            return matrix[i][j];
        });
    });
}
function transpose(matrix) {  
    return zeroFill(getMatrixWidth(matrix)).map(function(r, i) {
        return zeroFill(matrix.length).map(function(c, j) {
            return matrix[j][i];
        });
    });
}
function getMatrixWidth(matrix) {
    return matrix.reduce(function (result, row) {
        return Math.max(result, row.length);
    }, 0);
}
/** Array fill functions. */
function zeroFill(n) {
  return new Array(n+1).join('0').split('').map(Number);
}
function arrayFill(n, defaultValue) {
    return zeroFill(n).map(function(value) {
        return defaultValue || value;
    });
}
/** Print functions. */
function print(str) {
    str = Array.isArray(str) ? str.join(' ') : str;
    return document.getElementById('out').innerHTML += str || '';
}
function println(str) {
    print.call(null, [].slice.call(arguments, 0).concat(['<br />']));
}

#out {
    white-space: pre;
}

<div id="out"></div>

Answer 5

If using RamdaJS is an option, this can be achieved in one line: R.transpose(myArray)

Answer 6

I think this is slightly more readable. It uses Array.from and logic is identical to using nested loops:

var arr = [
  [1, 2, 3, 4],
  [1, 2, 3, 4],
  [1, 2, 3, 4]
];

/*
 * arr[0].length = 4 = number of result rows
 * arr.length = 3 = number of result cols
 */

var result = Array.from({ length: arr[0].length }, function(x, row) {
  return Array.from({ length: arr.length }, function(x, col) {
    return arr[col][row];
  });
});

console.log(result);

If you are dealing with arrays of unequal length you need to replace arr[0].length with something else:

var arr = [
  [1, 2],
  [1, 2, 3],
  [1, 2, 3, 4]
];

/*
 * arr[0].length = 4 = number of result rows
 * arr.length = 3 = number of result cols
 */

var result = Array.from({ length: arr.reduce(function(max, item) { return item.length > max ? item.length : max; }, 0) }, function(x, row) {
  return Array.from({ length: arr.length }, function(x, col) {
    return arr[col][row];
  });
});

console.log(result);