Array.prototype.forEach()

callbackFn

Function to execute on each element.

The function is called with the following arguments:

element

The current element being processed in the array.

index

The index of element in the array.

array

The array forEach() was called upon.

thisArg Optional

Value to use as this when executing callbackFn.

undefined.

forEach() calls a provided callbackFn function once for each element in an array in ascending index order. It is not invoked for index properties that have been deleted or are uninitialized. (For sparse arrays, see example below.)

callbackFn is invoked with three arguments:

1. the value of the element
2. the index of the element
3. the Array object being traversed

If a thisArg parameter is provided to forEach(), it will be used as callback's this value. The thisArg value ultimately observable by callbackFn is determined according to the usual rules for determining the this seen by a function.

The range of elements processed by forEach() is set before the first invocation of callbackFn. Elements which are assigned to indexes already visited, or to indexes outside the range, will not be visited by callbackFn. If existing elements of the array are changed or deleted, their value as passed to callbackFn will be the value at the time forEach() visits them; elements that are deleted before being visited are not visited. If elements that are already visited are removed (e.g. using shift()) during the iteration, later elements will be skipped. (See this example, below.)

forEach() executes the callbackFn function once for each array element; unlike map() or reduce() it always returns the value undefined and is not chainable. The typical use case is to execute side effects at the end of a chain.

forEach() does not mutate the array on which it is called. (However, callbackFn may do so)

const ratings = [5, 4, 5];
let sum = 0;

const sumFunction = async (a, b) => a + b;

ratings.forEach(async (rating) => {
  sum = await sumFunction(sum, rating);
});

console.log(sum);
// Naively expected output: 14
// Actual output: 0

The following code logs a line for each element in an array:

const logArrayElements = (element, index, array) => {
  console.log('a[' + index + '] = ' + element);
};

// Notice that index 2 is skipped, since there is no item at
// that position in the array...
[2, 5,, 9].forEach(logArrayElements);
// logs:
// a[0] = 2
// a[1] = 5
// a[3] = 9

The following (contrived) example updates an object's properties from each entry in the array:

function Counter() {
  this.sum = 0
  this.count = 0
}

Counter.prototype.add = function(array) {
  array.forEach(function countEntry(entry) {
    this.sum += entry;
    ++this.count;
  }, this);
};

const obj = new Counter();
obj.add([2, 5, 9]);
console.log(obj.count); // 3
console.log(obj.sum); // 16

Since the thisArg parameter (this) is provided to forEach(), it is passed to callback each time it's invoked. The callback uses it as its this value.

The following code creates a copy of a given object.

There are different ways to create a copy of an object. The following is just one way and is presented to explain how Array.prototype.forEach() works by using ECMAScript 5 Object.* meta property functions.

const copy = (obj) => {
  const copy = Object.create(Object.getPrototypeOf(obj));
  const propNames = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj);
  propNames.forEach((name) => {
    const desc = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(obj, name);
    Object.defineProperty(copy, name, desc);
  });
  return copy;
};

const obj1 = { a: 1, b: 2 };
const obj2 = copy(obj1); // obj2 looks like obj1 now

The following example logs one, two, four.

When the entry containing the value two is reached, the first entry of the whole array is shifted off—resulting in all remaining entries moving up one position. Because element four is now at an earlier position in the array, three will be skipped.

forEach() does not make a copy of the array before iterating.

const words = ['one', 'two', 'three', 'four'];
words.forEach((word) => {
  console.log(word);
  if (word === 'two') {
    words.shift(); //'one' will delete from array
  }
}); // one // two // four

console.log(words); // ['two', 'three', 'four']

The following example is only here for learning purpose. If you want to flatten an array using built-in methods you can use Array.prototype.flat().

const flatten = (arr) => {
  const result = [];
  arr.forEach((i) => {
    if (Array.isArray(i)) {
      result.push(...flatten(i));
    } else {
      result.push(i);
    }
  });
  return result;
}

// Usage
const nested = [1, 2, 3, [4, 5, [6, 7], 8, 9]];
console.log(flatten(nested)); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]

• Polyfill of Array.prototype.forEach in core-js
• Array.prototype.find()
• Array.prototype.findIndex()
• Array.prototype.map()
• Array.prototype.filter()
• Array.prototype.every()
• Array.prototype.some()
• Map.prototype.forEach()
• Set.prototype.forEach()