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
    Regular Expressions for the Rest of Us

    Sooner or later you'll run across a regular expression. With their cryptic syntax, confusing documentation and massive learning curve, most developers settle for copying and pasting them from StackOverflow and hoping they work. But what if you could decode regular expressions and harness their power? In...

  • By
    5 Awesome New Mozilla Technologies You’ve Never Heard Of

    My trip to Mozilla Summit 2013 was incredible.  I've spent so much time focusing on my project that I had lost sight of all of the great work Mozillians were putting out.  MozSummit provided the perfect reminder of how brilliant my colleagues are and how much...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools onLoad SmoothScrolling

    SmoothScroll is a fantastic MooTools plugin but smooth scrolling only occurs when the anchor is on the same page. Making SmoothScroll work across pages is as easy as a few extra line of MooTools and a querystring variable. The MooTools / PHP Of course, this is a...

  • By
    Basic AJAX Requests Using MooTools 1.2

    AJAX has become a huge part of the modern web and that wont change in the foreseeable future. MooTools has made AJAX so simple that a rookie developer can get their dynamic pages working in no time. Step 1: The XHTML Here we define two links...

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!