Is there a difference between foreach and map?

Question

Different.

foreach iterates over a list and performs some operation with side effects to each list member (such as saving each one to the database for example)

map iterates over a list, transforms each member of that list, and returns another list of the same size with the transformed members (such as converting a list of strings to uppercase)

The important difference between them is that map accumulates all of the results into a collection, whereas foreach returns nothing. map is usually used when you want to transform a collection of elements with a function, whereas foreach simply executes an action for each element.

In short, foreach is for applying an operation on each element of a collection of elements, whereas map is for transforming one collection into another.

There are two significant differences between foreach and map.

1. foreach has no conceptual restrictions on the operation it applies, other than perhaps accept an element as argument. That is, the operation may do nothing, may have a side-effect, may return a value or may not return a value. All foreach cares about is to iterate over a collection of elements, and apply the operation on each element.

   map, on the other hand, does have a restriction on the operation: it expects the operation to return an element, and probably also accept an element as argument. The map operation iterates over a collection of elements, applying the operation on each element, and finally storing the result of each invocation of the operation into another collection. In other words, the map transforms one collection into another.

2. foreach works with a single collection of elements. This is the input collection.

   map works with two collections of elements: the input collection and the output collection.

It is not a mistake to relate the two algorithms: in fact, you may view the two hierarchically, where map is a specialization of foreach. That is, you could use foreach and have the operation transform its argument and insert it into another collection. So, the foreach algorithm is an abstraction, a generalization, of the map algorithm. In fact, because foreach has no restriction on its operation we can safely say that foreach is the simplest looping mechanism out there, and it can do anything a loop can do. map, as well as other more specialized algorithms, is there for expressiveness: if you wish to map (or transform) one collection into another, your intention is clearer if you use map than if you use foreach.

We can extend this discussion further, and consider the copy algorithm: a loop which clones a collection. This algorithm too is a specialization of the foreach algorithm. You could define an operation that, given an element, will insert that same element into another collection. If you use foreach with that operation you in effect performed the copy algorithm, albeit with reduced clarity, expressiveness or explicitness. Let's take it even further: We can say that map is a specialization of copy, itself a specialization of foreach. map may change any of the elements it iterates over. If map doesn't change any of the elements then it merely copied the elements, and using copy would express the intent more clearly.

The foreach algorithm itself may or may not have a return value, depending on the language. In C++, for example, foreach returns the operation it originally received. The idea is that the operation might have a state, and you may want that operation back to inspect how it evolved over the elements. map, too, may or may not return a value. In C++ transform (the equivalent for map here) happens to return an iterator to the end of the output container (collection). In Ruby, the return value of map is the output sequence (collection). So, the return value of the algorithms is really an implementation detail; their effect may or may not be what they return.

Array.protototype.map method & Array.protototype.forEach are both quite similar.

Run the following code: http://labs.codecademy.com/bw1/6#:workspace

var arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

arr.map(function(val, ind, arr){
    console.log("arr[" + ind + "]: " + Math.pow(val,2));
});

console.log();

arr.forEach(function(val, ind, arr){
    console.log("arr[" + ind + "]: " + Math.pow(val,2));
});

They give the exact ditto result.

arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 4
arr[2]: 9
arr[3]: 16
arr[4]: 25

arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 4
arr[2]: 9
arr[3]: 16
arr[4]: 25

But the twist comes when you run the following code:-

Here I've simply assigned the result of the return value from the map and forEach methods.

var arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];

var ar1 = arr.map(function(val, ind, arr){
    console.log("arr[" + ind + "]: " + Math.pow(val,2));
    return val;
});

console.log();
console.log(ar1);
console.log();

var ar2 = arr.forEach(function(val, ind, arr){
    console.log("arr[" + ind + "]: " + Math.pow(val,2));
    return val;
});

console.log();
console.log(ar2);
console.log();

Now the result is something tricky!

arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 4
arr[2]: 9
arr[3]: 16
arr[4]: 25

[ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ]

arr[0]: 1
arr[1]: 4
arr[2]: 9
arr[3]: 16
arr[4]: 25

undefined

Conclusion

Array.prototype.map returns an array but Array.prototype.forEach doesn't. So you can manipulate the returned array inside the callback function passed to the map method and then return it.

Array.prototype.forEach only walks through the given array so you can do your stuff while walking the array.

the most 'visible' difference is that map accumulates the result in a new collection, while foreach is done only for the execution itself.

but there are a couple of extra assumptions: since the 'purpose' of map is the new list of values, it doesn't really matters the order of execution. in fact, some execution environments generate parallel code, or even introduce some memoizing to avoid calling for repeated values, or lazyness, to avoid calling some at all.

foreach, on the other hand, is called specifically for the side effects; therefore the order is important, and usually can't be parallelised.