Is there a fast way to delete a specific value from an array in Javascript?

Question

I have an array

var array = ["google","chrome","os","windows","os"];

I want to delete the value "chrome" from the array without the array becoming a string. Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

There's no faster way than finding it and then removing it. Finding it you can do with a loop or (in implementations that support it) indexOf. Removing it you can do with splice.

Live example: http://jsbin.com/anuta3/2

var array, index;
array = ["google","chrome","os","windows","os"];
if (array.indexOf) {
  index = array.indexOf("chrome");
}
else {
  for (index = array.length - 1; index >= 0; --index) {
    if (array[index] === "chrome") {
      break;
    }
  }
}
if (index >= 0) {
  array.splice(index, 1);
}

Answer 2

This wraps it up into a convenient function:

function remove_element(array, item) {
  for (var i = 0; i < array.length; ++i) {
    if (array[i] === item) {
      array.splice(i, 1);
      return;
    }
  }
}

var array = ["google", "chrome", "os", "windows", "os"];
remove_element(array, "chrome");

or (for browsers that support indexOf):

function remove_element(array, item) {
  var index = array.indexOf(item);
  if (-1 !== index) {
    array.splice(index, 1);
  }
}

Edit: Fixed up with === and !==.

Answer 3

Use the splice method of the Array class.

array.splice(1, 1);

Answer 4

The splice() method adds and/or removes elements to/from an array, and returns the removed element(s).

array.splice(indexOfElement,noOfItemsToBeRemoved);

in your case

   array.splice(1, 1);