Array: Insert an Item at a Specific Index with JavaScript

By  on  

There are many tasks related to arrays that sound quite simple but (1) aren't and (2) aren't required of a developer very often. I was encountered with one such task recently: inserting an item into an existing array at a specific index. Sounds easy and common enough but it took some research to figure it out.

// The original array
var array = ["one", "two", "four"];
// splice(position, numberOfItemsToRemove, item)
array.splice(2, 0, "three");

array;  // ["one", "two", "three", "four"]

If you aren't adverse to extending natives in JavaScript, you could add this method to the Array prototype:

Array.prototype.insert = function (index, item) {
  this.splice(index, 0, item);
};

I've tinkered around quite a bit with arrays, as you may have noticed:

Arrays are super useful -- JavaScript just makes some tasks a bit more ... code-heavy than they need to be. Keep these snippets in your toolbox for the future!

Recent Features

  • By
    Serving Fonts from CDN

    For maximum performance, we all know we must put our assets on CDN (another domain).  Along with those assets are custom web fonts.  Unfortunately custom web fonts via CDN (or any cross-domain font request) don't work in Firefox or Internet Explorer (correctly so, by spec) though...

  • By
    5 HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    When you say or read "HTML5", you half expect exotic dancers and unicorns to walk into the room to the tune of "I'm Sexy and I Know It."  Can you blame us though?  We watched the fundamental APIs stagnate for so long that a basic feature...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools 1.3 Browser Object

    MooTools 1.3 was just released and one of the big additions is the Browser object.  The Browser object is very helpful in that not only do you get information about browser type and browser versions, you can gain information about the user's OS, browser plugins, and...

  • By
    Flexbox Equal Height Columns

    Flexbox was supposed to be the pot of gold at the long, long rainbow of insufficient CSS layout techniques.  And the only disappointment I've experienced with flexbox is that browser vendors took so long to implement it.  I can't also claim to have pushed flexbox's limits, but...

Discussion

  1. Man, isn’t this JavaScript powerful…

  2. MaxArt

    How about a little step further? Since splice takes an indefinite number of arguments, you can do something like this:

    Array.prototype.insert = function (index) {
      this.splice.apply(this, [index, 0].concat(this.slice.call(arguments, 1)));
    };
    

    so you can do

    array.insert(2, "three", "another three", "the last three");
    array;  // ["one", "two", "three", "another three", "the last three", "four"]
    
  3. Great tip, thanks. I knew this trick before but I forgot that splice could take more than 2 arguments, phew.

  4. Yes, it’s a very useful function. Last year I was delighted to find out that it exists – it made the project I was working on extremely useful.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!