Creating multidimensional arrays & matrices in Javascript

Question

Trying to create a function mCreate() that given a set a numbers returns a multidimensional array (matrix):

mCreate(2, 2, 2)    
//   [[[0, 0], [0, 0]], [[0, 0], [0, 0]]]

When this functions handles just 2 levels of depth ie: mCreate(2, 2) //[[0, 0], [0, 0]] I know to do 2 levels, you can use 2 nested for loops but the problem I'm having is how to handle an n'th number of arguments.

Would this problem be better approached with recursion, otherwise how can I dynamically determine the number of nested for loops I'm going to need given the number of arguments?

ps: the most performant way would be great but not essential

RE-EDIT - After using Benchmark.js to check perf the results were as follows:

BenLesh x 82,043 ops/sec ±2.56% (83 runs sampled)
Phil-P x 205,852 ops/sec ±2.01% (81 runs sampled)
Brian x 252,508 ops/sec ±1.17% (89 runs sampled)
Rick-H x 287,988 ops/sec ±1.25% (82 runs sampled)
Rodney-R x 97,930 ops/sec ±1.67% (81 runs sampled)
Fastest is Rick-H

@briancavalier also came up with a good solution JSbin:

const mCreate = (...sizes) => (initialValue) => _mCreate(sizes, initialValue, sizes.length-1, 0)

const _mCreate = (sizes, initialValue, len, index) =>
    Array.from({ length: sizes[index] }, () => 
        index === len ? initialValue : _mCreate(sizes, initialValue, len, index+1))
mCreate(2, 2, 2)(0)

Answer 1

One simple recursive answer is this (in ES2015):

const mCreate = (...sizes) => 
    Array.from({ length: sizes[0] }, () => 
        sizes.length === 1 ? 0 : mCreate(...sizes.slice(1)));

JS Bin here

EDIT: I think I'd add the initializer in with a higher order function though:

const mCreate = (...sizes) => (initialValue) => 
    Array.from({ length: sizes[0] }, () => 
        sizes.length === 1 ? initialValue : mCreate(...sizes.slice(1))(initialValue));

Which could be used like:

mCreate(2, 2, 2)('hi'); 
// [[["hi", "hi"], ["hi", "hi"]], [["hi", "hi"], ["hi", "hi"]]]

JSBin of that

Answer 2

Here's a non-recursive solution:

function mCreate() {
  var result = 0, i;

  for(i = arguments.length - 1; i >= 0 ; i--) {
    result = new Array(arguments[i]).fill(result);
  }

  return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(result));
}

The JSON functions are used to mimic a deep clone, but that causes the function to be non-performant.

function mCreate() {
  var result = 0, i;
  
  for(i = arguments.length - 1; i >= 0 ; i--) {
    result = new Array(arguments[i]).fill(result);
  }

  return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(result));
}


console.log(JSON.stringify(mCreate(2, 2, 2)));
console.log(JSON.stringify(mCreate(1, 2, 3, 4)));
console.log(JSON.stringify(mCreate(5)));
console.log(JSON.stringify(mCreate(1, 5)));
console.log(JSON.stringify(mCreate(5, 1)));

var m = mCreate(1, 2, 3, 4);
m[0][1][1][3] = 4;
console.log(JSON.stringify(m));

Answer 3

Recursive algorithms may be easier to reason about, but generally they're not required. In this particular case the iterative approach is simple enough.

Your problem consists of two parts:

1. creating an array with variable number of 0-value elements
2. creating variable number of arrays of previously created arrays

Here's an implementation of what I think you're trying to create:

function nested() {
  // handle the deepest level first, because we need to generate the zeros
  var result = [];
  for (var zeros = arguments[arguments.length - 1]; zeros > 0; zeros--) {
    result.push(0);
  }

  // for every argument, walking backwards, we clone the
  // previous result as often as requested by that argument
  for (var i = arguments.length - 2; i >= 0; i--) {
    var _clone = [];
    for (var clones = arguments[i]; clones > 0; clones--) {
      // result.slice() returns a shallow copy
      _clone.push(result.slice(0));
    }

    result = _clone;
  }

  if (arguments.length > 2) {
    // the shallowly copying the array works fine for 2 dimensions,
    // but for higher dimensions, we need to compensate
    return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(result));
  }

  return result;
}

Since writing the algorithm is only half of the solution, here's the test to verify our function actually performs the way we want it to. We'd typically use one of the gazillion test runners (e.g. mocha or AVA). But since I don't know your setup (if any), we'll just do this manually:

var tests = [
  {
    // the arguments we want to pass to the function.
    // translates to nested(2, 2)
    input: [2, 2],
    // the result we expect the function to return for
    // the given input
    output: [
      [0, 0],
      [0, 0]
    ]
  },
  {
    input: [2, 3],
    output: [
      [0, 0, 0],
      [0, 0, 0]
    ]
  },
  {
    input: [3, 2],
    output: [
      [0, 0],
      [0, 0],
      [0, 0]
    ]
  },
  {
    input: [3, 2, 1],
    output: [
      [
        [0], [0]
      ],
      [
        [0], [0]
      ],
      [
        [0], [0]
      ]
    ]
  },
];

tests.forEach(function(test) {
  // execute the function with the input array as arguments
  var result = nested.apply(null, test.input);
  // verify the result is correct
  var matches = JSON.stringify(result) === JSON.stringify(test.output);
  if (!matches) {
    console.error('failed input', test.input);
    console.log('got', result, 'but expected', rest.output);
  } else {
    console.info('passed', test.input);
  }
});

It's up to you to define and handle edge-cases, like nested(3, 0), nested(0, 4), nested(3, -1) or nested(-1, 2).