Array.prototype.forEach()
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
The forEach()
method of Array
instances executes a provided function once
for each array element.
Try it
Syntax
forEach(callbackFn)
forEach(callbackFn, thisArg)
Parameters
callbackFn
-
A function to execute for each element in the array. Its return value is discarded. The function is called with the following arguments:
thisArg
Optional-
A value to use as
this
when executingcallbackFn
. See iterative methods.
Return value
None (undefined
).
Description
The forEach()
method is an iterative method. It calls a provided callbackFn
function once for each element in an array in ascending-index order. Unlike map()
, forEach()
always returns undefined
and is not chainable. The typical use case is to execute side effects at the end of a chain. Read the iterative methods section for more information about how these methods work in general.
callbackFn
is invoked only for array indexes which have assigned values. It is not invoked for empty slots in sparse arrays.
The forEach()
method is generic. It only expects the this
value to have a length
property and integer-keyed properties.
There is no way to stop or break a forEach()
loop other than by throwing an exception. If you need such behavior, the forEach()
method is the wrong tool.
Early termination may be accomplished with looping statements like for
, for...of
, and for...in
. Array methods like every()
, some()
, find()
, and findIndex()
also stops iteration immediately when further iteration is not necessary.
forEach()
expects a synchronous function — it does not wait for promises. Make sure you are aware of the implications while using promises (or async functions) as forEach
callbacks.
const ratings = [5, 4, 5];
let sum = 0;
const sumFunction = async (a, b) => a + b;
ratings.forEach(async (rating) => {
sum = await sumFunction(sum, rating);
});
console.log(sum);
// Naively expected output: 14
// Actual output: 0
To run a series of asynchronous operations sequentially or concurrently, see promise composition.
Examples
Converting a for loop to forEach
const items = ["item1", "item2", "item3"];
const copyItems = [];
// before
for (let i = 0; i < items.length; i++) {
copyItems.push(items[i]);
}
// after
items.forEach((item) => {
copyItems.push(item);
});
Printing the contents of an array
Note: In order to display the content of an array in the console,
you can use console.table()
, which prints a formatted
version of the array.
The following example illustrates an alternative approach, using
forEach()
.
The following code logs a line for each element in an array:
const logArrayElements = (element, index /*, array */) => {
console.log(`a[${index}] = ${element}`);
};
// Notice that index 2 is skipped, since there is no item at
// that position in the array.
[2, 5, , 9].forEach(logArrayElements);
// Logs:
// a[0] = 2
// a[1] = 5
// a[3] = 9
Using thisArg
The following (contrived) example updates an object's properties from each entry in the array:
class Counter {
constructor() {
this.sum = 0;
this.count = 0;
}
add(array) {
// Only function expressions have their own this bindings.
array.forEach(function countEntry(entry) {
this.sum += entry;
++this.count;
}, this);
}
}
const obj = new Counter();
obj.add([2, 5, 9]);
console.log(obj.count); // 3
console.log(obj.sum); // 16
Since the thisArg
parameter (this
) is provided to
forEach()
, it is passed to callback
each time it's
invoked. The callback uses it as its this
value.
Note: If passing the callback function used an
arrow function expression,
the thisArg
parameter could be omitted,
since all arrow functions lexically bind the this
value.
An object copy function
The following code creates a copy of a given object.
There are different ways to create a copy of an object. The following is just one way
and is presented to explain how Array.prototype.forEach()
works by using
Object.*
utility functions.
const copy = (obj) => {
const copy = Object.create(Object.getPrototypeOf(obj));
const propNames = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj);
propNames.forEach((name) => {
const desc = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(obj, name);
Object.defineProperty(copy, name, desc);
});
return copy;
};
const obj1 = { a: 1, b: 2 };
const obj2 = copy(obj1); // obj2 looks like obj1 now
Flatten an array
The following example is only here for learning purpose. If you want to flatten an
array using built-in methods, you can use Array.prototype.flat()
.
const flatten = (arr) => {
const result = [];
arr.forEach((item) => {
if (Array.isArray(item)) {
result.push(...flatten(item));
} else {
result.push(item);
}
});
return result;
};
// Usage
const nested = [1, 2, 3, [4, 5, [6, 7], 8, 9]];
console.log(flatten(nested)); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
Using the third argument of callbackFn
The array
argument is useful if you want to access another element in the array, especially when you don't have an existing variable that refers to the array. The following example first uses filter()
to extract the positive values and then uses forEach()
to log its neighbors.
const numbers = [3, -1, 1, 4, 1, 5];
numbers
.filter((num) => num > 0)
.forEach((num, idx, arr) => {
// Without the arr argument, there's no way to easily access the
// intermediate array without saving it to a variable.
console.log(arr[idx - 1], num, arr[idx + 1]);
});
// undefined 3 1
// 3 1 4
// 1 4 1
// 4 1 5
// 1 5 undefined
Using forEach() on sparse arrays
const arraySparse = [1, 3, /* empty */, 7];
let numCallbackRuns = 0;
arraySparse.forEach((element) => {
console.log({ element });
numCallbackRuns++;
});
console.log({ numCallbackRuns });
// { element: 1 }
// { element: 3 }
// { element: 7 }
// { numCallbackRuns: 3 }
The callback function is not invoked for the missing value at index 2.
Calling forEach() on non-array objects
The forEach()
method reads the length
property of this
and then accesses each property whose key is a nonnegative integer less than length
.
const arrayLike = {
length: 3,
0: 2,
1: 3,
2: 4,
3: 5, // ignored by forEach() since length is 3
};
Array.prototype.forEach.call(arrayLike, (x) => console.log(x));
// 2
// 3
// 4
Specifications
Specification |
---|
ECMAScript Language Specification # sec-array.prototype.foreach |
Browser compatibility
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