JavaScript move an item of an array to the front

Question

I want to check if an array contains "role". If it does, I want to move the "role" to the front of the array.

var data= ["email","role","type","name"];
if ("role" in data) data.remove(data.indexOf("role")); data.unshift("role")
data;

Here, I got the result:

["role", "email", "role", "type", "name"]

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

You can sort the array and specify that the value "role" comes before all other values, and that all other values are equal:

var first = "role";
data.sort(function(x,y){ return x == first ? -1 : y == first ? 1 : 0; });

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Guffa/7ST24/

Answer 2

The cleanest solution in ES6 in my opinion:

let data = ["email","role","type","name"];
data = data.filter(item => item !== "role");
data.unshift("role");

Answer 3

My first thought would be:

var data= ["email","role","type","name"];

// if it's not there, or is already the first element (of index 0)
// then there's no point going further:
if (data.indexOf('role') > 0) {
    // find the current index of 'role':
    var index = data.indexOf('role');
    // using splice to remove elements from the array, starting at
    // the identified index, and affecting 1 element(s):
    data.splice(index,1);
    // putting the 'role' string back in the array:
    data.unshift('role');
}

console.log(data);

To revise, and tidy up a little:

if (data.indexOf('role') > 0) {
    data.splice(data.indexOf('role'), 1);
    data.unshift('role');
}

References:

• Array.indexOf().
• Array.prototype.splice().
• Array.unshift().

Answer 4

let data = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
let index = 3;
data.unshift(data.splice(index, 1)[0]);
// data = [3, 0, 1, 2, 4, 5]

Answer 5

If you don't want to alter the existing array, you can use ES6 destructuring with the filter method to create a new copy while maintaining the order of the other items.

const data = ["email", "role", "type", "name"];
const newData = ['role', ...data.filter(item => item !== 'role')];

Answer 6

Here is an immutable solution if needed :

      const newData = [
          data.find(item => item === 'role'),
          ...data.filter(item => item !== 'role'),
        ],

Answer 7

To check whether an item exists in an array you should to use .includes() instead of in (as already noted here, in is for properties in objects).

This function does what you are looking for: (removes the item from the position it is in and reads in front)

   
   data = ["email","role","type","name"];
   moveToFirst("role", data);
    
   function moveToFirst( stringToMove, arrayIn ){
      if ( arrayIn.includes(stringToMove) ){
        let currentIndex = arrayIn.indexOf(stringToMove);
        arrayIn.splice(currentIndex, 1);
        arrayIn.unshift(stringToMove);
      } 
    }
    
    console.log(data);

Answer 8

If you have an array of objects you could shift the start-index with splice and push. Splice replaces the original array with the part of the array starting from the desired index and returns the part it removes (the stuff before the index) which you push.

let friends = [{
    id: 1,
    name: "Sam",
  },
  {
    id: 2,
    name: "Steven",
  },
  {
    id: 3,
    name: "Tom",
  },
  {
    id: 4,
    name: "Nora",
  },
  {
    id: 5,
    name: "Jessy",
  }
];

const tomsIndex = friends.findIndex(friend => friend.name == 'Tom');
friends.push(...friends.splice(0, tomsIndex));

console.log(friends);

Answer 9

I would go with this ES6 solution. It doesn't mutate the original array(considering it's not nested), doesn't traverse through the array(filter) and you're not just limited to 0th index for shifting the array item.

const moveArrayItem = (array, fromIndex, toIndex) => {
    const arr = [...array];
    arr.splice(toIndex, 0, ...arr.splice(fromIndex, 1));
    return arr;
}


const arr = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g"];
console.log(moveArrayItem(arr, 4, 0))
// [ 'e', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'f', 'g' ]

Answer 10

Similar to @Tandroid's answer but a more general solution:

const putItemsFirst = ({ findFunction, array }) => [
    ...array.filter(findFunction), 
    ...array.filter(item => !findFunction(item)),
]; 

Can be used like this

putItemsFirst({ 
    array: ["email","role","type","name"], 
    findFunction: item => item === 'role',
})

Something similar to this is what I ended up using,

Answer 11

1. the in operator is about properties, not about items in arrays. See How do I check if an array includes an object in JavaScript? for what to use else.
2. You're missing braces around the two (!) statements in your if-block
3. I'm not sure whether that .remove() function you're using does take an index of an item.

Answer 12

var data= ["email","role","type","name"];

data.splice(data.indexOf("role"), 1);
data.unshift('role');

Answer 13

You could take the delta of the check with the wanted value at top.

var data = ["email", "role", "type", "name"];

data.sort((a, b) => (b === 'role') - (a === 'role'));

console.log(data);

Answer 14

Using lodash _.sortBy. If the item is role, it will be sorted first, otherwise second. This works fine too if there is no role

var data = ["email", "role", "type", "name"];

var sorted = _.sortBy(data, function(item) {
  return item === 'role' ? 0 : 1;
});

console.log(sorted);

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>

Answer 15

A reusable ES6/Typescript solution:

const moveToStart = <T>(array: T[], predicate: (item: T) => boolean): T[] => {
  return array.sort((a, b) => {
    if (predicate(a)) return -1;
    if (predicate(b)) return 1;

    return 0;
  });
};

const data = ["email", "role", "type", "name"];
const result = moveToStart(data, (item) => item === "role"))

Answer 16

Just wanted to drop this on here since according to other comments Guffa's answer seems to be gaining traction, the final tertiary - which was one of the negative comments on that answer is unnecessary. Also using arrow functions makes it seem much cleaner.

Also, it is easily expandable to handling Arrays of objects.

const first = "role";
data.sort((x, y) => first === x ? -1 : first === y)

I believe this should also handle the worry of the rest of the array being affected. When the sort function returns a number less than 0 (first === x), the element will move toward the start of the Array, when it returns 0 (first !== y), there will be no movement, and when a number greater than 0 (first === y), x will move toward the end of the Array, all in relation to x and y. Therefore, when neither x or y are equivalent to the desired first element (or it's identifier in the case of sorting objects), there will be no movement of the two in relation to each other.

For an object:

const unsorted = [{'id': 'test'}, {'id': 'something'}, {'id': 'else'}];
const first = 'something';
const sorted = unsorted.sort((x,y) => x['id'] === first ? -1 : y['id'] === first);

Answer 17

Generalized one-liners:

const data = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f"];
const [from, take] = [3, 2];

data.unshift(...data.splice(from, take));
// alternatively
data = [...data.splice(from, take), ...data];
// ["d", "e", "a", "b", "c", "f"]

Answer 18

var i = -1;
while (i < data.length) {
    if (data[i] === "role") {
        data.splice(i, 1);
        break;
    }
    i++;
}
data.unshift("role");

indexOf only has limited browser support, not being recognized by IE7-8. So I wouldn't use it if I were you, even at the expense of a few lines' worth of code conciseness. You also want to put a semicolon at the end of the "unshift" statement. splice()'s first argument specifies the index to start removing elements, and the second argument specifies the number of arguments to remove.

Answer 19

var data= ["email","role","type","name"];
if ("role" in data) data.splice(data.indexOf("role"),1); data.unshift("role");
data;