Array Object

The Array object is used to store multiple values in a single variable.

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Try it Yourself - Examples

Create an array
Create an array, assign values to it, and write the values to the output.
(You can find more examples at the bottom of this page)

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Complete Array Object Reference

For a complete reference of all the properties and methods that can be used with the Array object, go to our complete Array object reference.
The reference contains a brief description and examples of use for each property and method!

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What is an Array?

An array is a special variable, which can hold more than one value, at a time.
If you have a list of items (a list of car names, for example), storing the cars in single variables could look like this:

var car1="Saab"; var car2="Volvo"; var car3="BMW";

However, what if you want to loop through the cars and find a specific one? And what if you had not 3 cars, but 300?
The best solution here is to use an array!
An array can hold all your variable values under a single name. And you can access the values by referring to the array name.
Each element in the array has its own ID so that it can be easily accessed.

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Create an Array

An array can be defined in three ways.
The following code creates an Array object called myCars:
1:

var myCars=new Array(); // regular array (add an optional integer myCars[0]="Saab";       // argument to control array's size) myCars[1]="Volvo"; myCars[2]="BMW";

2:

var myCars=new Array("Saab","Volvo","BMW"); // condensed array

3:

var myCars=["Saab","Volvo","BMW"]; // literal array

Note: If you specify numbers or true/false values inside the array then the variable type will be Number or Boolean, instead of String.

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Access an Array

You can refer to a particular element in an array by referring to the name of the array and the index number. The index number starts at 0.
The following code line:

document.write(myCars[0]);

will result in the following output:

Saab

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Modify Values in an Array

To modify a value in an existing array, just add a new value to the array with a specified index number:

myCars[0]="Opel";

Now, the following code line:

document.write(myCars[0]);

will result in the following output:

Opel

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More Examples

Join two arrays - concat()
Join three arrays - concat()
Join all elements of an array into a string - join()
Remove the last element of an array - pop()
Add new elements to the end of an array - push()
Reverse the order of the elements in an array - reverse()
Remove the first element of an array - shift()
Select elements from an array - slice()
Sort an array (alphabetically and ascending) - sort()
Sort numbers (numerically and ascending) - sort()
Sort numbers (numerically and descending) - sort()
Add an element to position 2 in an array - splice()
Convert an array to a string - toString()
Add new elements to the beginning of an array - unshift()