[javascript] How to split a long array into smaller arrays, with JavaScript

I have an array of e-mails (it can be just 1 email, or 100 emails), and I need to send the array with an ajax request (that I know how to do), but I can only send an array that has 10 or less e-mails in it. So if there is an original array of 20 e-mails I will need to split them up into 2 arrays of 10 each. or if there are 15 e-mails in the original array, then 1 array of 10, and another array of 5. I'm using jQuery, what would be the best way to do this?

This question is related to javascript jquery arrays loops

The answer is


If you want a method that doesn't modify the existing array, try this:

let oldArray = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15];
let newArray = [];
let size = 3; // Size of chunks you are after
let j = 0; // This helps us keep track of the child arrays

for (var i = 0; i < oldArray.length; i++) {
  if (i % size === 0) {
    j++
  }
  if(!newArray[j]) newArray[j] = [];
  newArray[j].push(oldArray[i])
}

Here is a simple one liner

_x000D_
_x000D_
var segment = (arr, n) => arr.reduce((r,e,i) => i%n ? (r[r.length-1].push(e), r)_x000D_
                                                    : (r.push([e]), r), []),_x000D_
        arr = Array.from({length: 31}).map((_,i) => i+1);_x000D_
console.log(segment(arr,7));
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


Another method:

var longArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10];
var size = 2;

var newArray = new Array(Math.ceil(longArray.length / size)).fill("")
    .map(function() { return this.splice(0, size) }, longArray.slice());

// newArray = [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6], [7, 8], [9, 10]];

This doesn't affect the original array as a copy, made using slice, is passed into the 'this' argument of map.


Array.reduce could be inefficient for large arrays, especially with the mod operator. I think a cleaner (and possibly easier to read) functional solution would be this:

const chunkArray = (arr, size) =>
  arr.length > size
    ? [arr.slice(0, size), ...chunkArray(arr.slice(size), size)]
    : [arr];

Just loop over the array, splicing it until it's all consumed.



var a = ['a','b','c','d','e','f','g']
  , chunk

while (a.length > 0) {

  chunk = a.splice(0,3)

  console.log(chunk)

}

output


[ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]
[ 'd', 'e', 'f' ]
[ 'g' ]


More compact:

_x000D_
_x000D_
const chunk = (xs, size) =>_x000D_
  xs.map((_, i) =>_x000D_
    (i % size === 0 ? xs.slice(i, i + size) : null)).filter(Boolean);_x000D_
    _x000D_
// Usage:_x000D_
const sampleArray = new Array(33).fill(undefined).map((_, i) => i);_x000D_
_x000D_
console.log(chunk(sampleArray, 5));
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


You can use lodash: https://lodash.com/docs

_.chunk(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], 2);
// ? [['a', 'b'], ['c', 'd']]

using recursion

let myArr = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16];
let size = 4; //Math.sqrt(myArr.length); --> For a n x n matrix
let tempArr = [];
function createMatrix(arr, i) {
    if (arr.length !== 0) {
      if(i % size == 0) {
        tempArr.push(arr.splice(0,size))
      } 
      createMatrix(arr, i - 1)
    }
}
createMatrix(myArr, myArr.length);
console.log(tempArr);

Note: The existing array i.e. myArr will be modified.


I would like to share my solution as well. It's a little bit more verbose but works as well.

var data = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15];

var chunksize = 4;


var chunks = [];

data.forEach((item)=>{
  if(!chunks.length || chunks[chunks.length-1].length == chunksize)
  chunks.push([]);

  chunks[chunks.length-1].push(item);
});

console.log(chunks);

Output (formatted):

[ [ 1,  2,  3,  4],
  [ 5,  6,  7,  8],
  [ 9, 10, 11, 12],
  [13, 14, 15    ] ]

function chunkArrayInGroups(arr, size) {
    var newArr=[];

    for (var i=0; i < arr.length; i+= size){
    newArr.push(arr.slice(i,i+size));
    }
    return newArr;

}

chunkArrayInGroups([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], 3);

Another implementation:

const arr = ["H", "o", "w", " ", "t", "o", " ", "s", "p", "l", "i", "t", " ", "a", " ", "l", "o", "n", "g", " ", "a", "r", "r", "a", "y", " ", "i", "n", "t", "o", " ", "s", "m", "a", "l", "l", "e", "r", " ", "a", "r", "r", "a", "y", "s", ",", " ", "w", "i", "t", "h", " ", "J", "a", "v", "a", "S", "c", "r", "i", "p", "t"];

const size = 3; 
const res = arr.reduce((acc, curr, i) => {
  if ( !(i % size)  ) {    // if index is 0 or can be divided by the `size`...
    acc.push(arr.slice(i, i + size));   // ..push a chunk of the original array to the accumulator
  }
  return acc;
}, []);

// => [["H", "o", "w"], [" ", "t", "o"], [" ", "s", "p"], ["l", "i", "t"], [" ", "a", " "], ["l", "o", "n"], ["g", " ", "a"], ["r", "r", "a"], ["y", " ", "i"], ["n", "t", "o"], [" ", "s", "m"], ["a", "l", "l"], ["e", "r", " "], ["a", "r", "r"], ["a", "y", "s"], [",", " ", "w"], ["i", "t", "h"], [" ", "J", "a"], ["v", "a", "S"], ["c", "r", "i"], ["p", "t"]]

NB - This does not modify the original array.

Or, if you prefer a functional, 100% immutable (although there's really nothing bad in mutating in place like done above) and self-contained method:

function splitBy(size, list) {
  return list.reduce((acc, curr, i, self) => {
    if ( !(i % size)  ) {  
      return [
          ...acc,
          self.slice(i, i + size),
        ];
    }
    return acc;
  }, []);
}

Another implementation, using Array.reduce (I think it’s the only one missing!):

const splitArray = (arr, size) =>
{
    if (size === 0) {
        return [];
    }

    return arr.reduce((split, element, index) => {
        index % size === 0 ? split.push([element]) : split[Math.floor(index / size)].push(element);
        return split;
    }, []);
};

As many solutions above, this one’s non-destructive. Returning an empty array when the size is 0 is just a convention. If the if block is omitted you get an error, which might be what you want.


You can take a look at this code . Simple and Effective .

function chunkArrayInGroups(array, unit) {
var results = [],
length = Math.ceil(array.length / unit);

for (var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
    results.push(array.slice(i * unit, (i + 1) * unit));
}
 return results;
}

chunkArrayInGroups(["a", "b", "c", "d"], 2);

as a function

var arrayChunk = function (array, chunkSize) {
            var arrayOfArrays = [];

            if (array.length <= chunkSize) {
                arrayOfArrays.push(array);
            } else {
                for (var i=0; i<array.length; i+=chunkSize) {
                    arrayOfArrays.push(array.slice(i,i+chunkSize));
                }
            }
            return arrayOfArrays;
        }

to use

arrayChunk(originalArray, 10) //10 being the chunk size.

using prototype we can set directly to array class

_x000D_
_x000D_
Array.prototype.chunk = function(n) {_x000D_
  if (!this.length) {_x000D_
    return [];_x000D_
  }_x000D_
  return [this.slice(0, n)].concat(this.slice(n).chunk(n));_x000D_
};_x000D_
console.log([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15].chunk(5));
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


function chunkArrayInGroups(arr, size) {
    var newArr=[];

    for (var i=0; arr.length>size; i++){
    newArr.push(arr.splice(0,size));
    }
    newArr.push(arr.slice(0));
    return newArr;

}

chunkArrayInGroups([0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], 3);

Assuming you don't want to destroy the original array, you can use code like this to break up the long array into smaller arrays which you can then iterate over:

var longArray = [];   // assume this has 100 or more email addresses in it
var shortArrays = [], i, len;

for (i = 0, len = longArray.length; i < len; i += 10) {
    shortArrays.push(longArray.slice(i, i + 10));
}

// now you can iterate over shortArrays which is an 
// array of arrays where each array has 10 or fewer 
// of the original email addresses in it

for (i = 0, len = shortArrays.length; i < len; i++) {
    // shortArrays[i] is an array of email addresss of 10 or less
}

var size = 10; var arrayOfArrays = [];
for (var i=0; i<bigarray.length; i+=size) {
     arrayOfArrays.push(bigarray.slice(i,i+size));
}
console.log(arrayOfArrays);

Unlike splice(), slice() is non-destructive to the original array.


const originalArr = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11];
const splittedArray = [];
  while (originalArr.length > 0) {
    splittedArray.push(originalArr.splice(0,range));  
  }

output for range 3

splittedArray === [[1,2,3][4,5,6][7,8,9][10,11]]

output for range 4

splittedArray === [[1,2,3,4][5,6,7,8][9,10,11]]

As a supplement to @jyore's answer, and in case you still want to keep the original array:

var originalArray = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8];

var splitArray = function (arr, size) {

  var arr2 = arr.slice(0),
      arrays = [];

  while (arr2.length > 0) {
      arrays.push(arr2.splice(0, size));
  }

  return arrays;
}

splitArray(originalArray, 2);
// originalArray is still = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8];

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