javascript remove array from array

Question

Assume we have the following arrays:

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] 

and

b = [2, 3] 

How can I subtract b from a? So that we have c = a - b which should be equal to [1, 4, 5]. jQuery solution would also be fine.

Answer 1

Assuming you're on a browser that has Array.prototype.filter and Array.prototype.indexOf, you could use this:

var c = a.filter(function(item) {     return b.indexOf(item) === -1; }); 

If the browser in question does not have those methods, you may be able to shim them.

Answer 2

This is a modified version of the answer posted by @icktoofay.

In ES6 we can make use of:

• Array.prototype.contains()
• Array.prototype.filter()
• Arrow functions

This will simplify our code to:

var c = a.filter(x => !b.includes(x)); 

Demo:

var a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];  var b = [2, 3];    var c = a.filter(x => !b.includes(x));  console.log(c);