Split array into two different arrays using functional JavaScript

Question

I was wondering what would be the best way to split an array into two different arrays using JavaScript, but to keep it in the realms of functional programming.

Let's say that the two arrays should be created depending on some logic. For instance splitting one array should only contain strings with less than four characters and the other the rest.

const arr = ['horse', 'elephant', 'dog', 'crocodile', 'cat'];

I have thought about different methods:

Filter:

const lessThanFour = arr.filter((animal) => {
    return animal.length < 4;
});
const fourAndMore = arr.filter((animal) => {
    return animal.length >= 4;
});

The problem with this for me is that you have to go through your data twice, but it is very readable. Would there be a massive impact doing this twice if you have a rather large array?

Reduce:

const threeFourArr = arr.reduce((animArr, animal) => {
  if (animal.length < 4) {
    return [[...animArr[0], animal], animArr[1]];
  } else {
    return  [animArr[0], [...animArr[1], animal]];
  }
}, [[], []]);

Where the array's 0 index contains the array of less than four and the 1 index contains the array of more than three.

I don't like this too much, because it seems that the data structure is going to give a bit of problems, seeing that it is an array of arrays. I've thought about building an object with the reduce, but I can't imagine that it would be better than the array within an array solution.

I've managed to look at similar questions online as well as Stack Overflow, but many of these break the idea of immutability by using push() or they have very unreadable implementations, which in my opinion breaks the expressiveness of functional programming.

Are there any other ways of doing this? (functional of course)

Answer 1

collateBy

I just shared a similar answer here

I like this solution better because it abstracts away the collation but allows you to control how items are collated using a higher-order function.

Notice how we don't say anything about animal.length or < 4 or animals[0].push inside collateBy. This procedure has no knowledge of the kind of data you might be collating.

// generic collation procedure
const collateBy = f => g => xs => {
  return xs.reduce((m,x) => {
    let v = f(x)
    return m.set(v, g(m.get(v), x))
  }, new Map())
}

// custom collator
const collateByStrLen4 =
  // collate by length > 4 using array concatenation for like elements
  // note i'm using `[]` as the "seed" value for the empty collation
  collateBy (x=> x.length > 4) ((a=[],b)=> [...a,b])

// sample data
const arr = ['horse','elephant','dog','crocodile','cat']

// get collation
let collation = collateByStrLen4 (arr)

// output specific collation keys
console.log('greater than 4', collation.get(true))
console.log('not greater than 4', collation.get(false))

// output entire collation
console.log('all entries', Array.from(collation.entries()))

Check out that other answer I posted to see other usage varieties. It's a pretty handy procedure.

---

bifilter

This is another solution that captures both out outputs of a filter function, instead of throwing away filtered values like Array.prototype.filter does.

This is basically what your reduce implementation does but it is abstracted into a generic, parameterized procedure. It does not use Array.prototype.push but in the body of a closure, localized mutation is generally accepted as OK.

const bifilter = (f,xs) => {
  return xs.reduce(([T,F], x, i, arr)=> {
    if (f(x, i, arr) === false)
      return [T, [...F,x]]
    else
      return [[...T,x] ,F]
  }, [[],[]])
}

const arr = ['horse','elephant','dog','crocodile','cat']

let [truthy,falsy] = bifilter(x=> x.length > 4, arr)
console.log('greater than 4', truthy)
console.log('not greater than 4', falsy)

Though it might be a little more straightforward, it's not nearly as powerful as collateBy. Either way, pick whichever one you like, adapt it to meet your needs if necessary, and have fun !

---

If this is your own app, go nuts and add it to Array.prototype

// attach to Array.prototype if this is your own app
// do NOT do this if this is part of a lib that others will inherit
Array.prototype.bifilter = function(f) {
  return bifilter(f,this)
}