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Cover image for Map/Filter/Reduce Crash Course
Chris Achard
Chris Achard

Posted on • Originally published at twitter.com

Map/Filter/Reduce Crash Course

This was originally posted as a Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/chrisachard/status/1173750491458789378

Have you heard about map, filter, and reduce, but never really understood them?

Here's a 🔥 map().filter().reduce() 🔥 crash course for you!

1.

map, filter and reduce can all operate independently, or be chained together

They operate on an array and transform it

Map, Filter, Reduce

2.

filter takes the array and returns a new array that only contains the elements that match some condition

Filter

3.

It loops over the elements, passing each one to a callback function

You can return true to include that element in the new array, or false to exclude it

Filter loops over the elements

4.

Think of map like an element transform function

It loops over an array, and you can return a new element for each spot in the array

Map

5.

This lets you transform each element into something new (or keep it the same)

Types don't have to be the same: can return objects, string, numbers - anything!

Map to transform elements

6.

reduce loops over an array and let's you "collect" the elements into something else (by running a function)

That "something else" is specified by you as the second argument

This way, you can "collapse" (reduce) the array into a new array, an object, number, etc.

Reduce

7.

During each loop of reduce, you can get result of the last loop, and the next element in the array

Change the result, then return it for the next loop iteration

When you're done, you have the completed collection

Reduce loop

8.

The callback functions to map, filter and reduce all can also get the current index and the entire original array if you need them

Map, filter, reduce

9.

All together now:

Chain filter with map to first remove elements you don't care about, and then transform them

Or,

Chain filter with reduce to filter the list first, then transform it into something else

Chain

10.

So why are map, filter and reduce useful?

  • don't have to manually loop over array
  • chain together for short, straightforward array transformations
  • can reuse callback functions and compose them together

useful composition

Code Links

Here are some interactive code samples to play with: https://chrisachard.com/examples/map-filter-reduce

I realize this can be confusing!

Tweet at me or DM if I can help out 🙌

 

Like this crash course?
Find more on twitter: @chrisachard
and in my my newsletter 📬

Thanks for reading!

Top comments (25)

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kasra6 profile image
kasra6

Thank you for your clear voice and explanation. Map and filter was easy to understand at least at this stage, but I couldn't digest reduce. like what is the previous loop and next element!
Anyway this article was really useful. Thank you

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worsnupd profile image
Daniel Worsnup

Great summary! I wrote about reduce recently as well: dev.to/worsnupd/everything-you-nee... It's cool to see how a lot of Array prototype methods are just special cases of reduce.

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Yep! reduce is super powerful (which is why it can be so confusing!)

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brewsterbhg profile image
Keith Brewster

This is a great breakdown, another big benefit (which you mentioned near the beginning) is that it returns you a new instance of an array instead of mutating the original one.

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Yes, definitely - I didn't have the space to really expand on that (maybe a part 2!), but these three really shine when you want to not mutate data.

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jasterix profile image
Jasterix

This is such a great summary. I'm a bit late to using reduce, but as I use it more, I'm realizing how powerful it is

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Thanks! Glad it was helpful.

Exactly: reduce is something that I thought wasn't great, UNTIL I started just using it. Now I use it all the time! It's really great for condensing a lot of logic down into just a few lines.

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frontendengineer profile image
Let's Code

Hi Chris, going to include the youtube channel I just created to help the community as well if you do not mind. I am trying to release one vid a week. Thank you and this article is a great crash course indeed. I can see enormous time and effort you put in.

youtube.com/channel/UCFIwa5Eqf4kN1...

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feralamillo profile image
Feralamillo

Very nice article Chris!! It's great how you have summarized these 3 methods that can make it easily for developers.

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Thanks! Glad you liked it :)

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banjoanton profile image
Anton Ödman

I love your articles!

So concise, well written and easy to follow, great work! 👏

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Thanks! It's fun to try to break something down to just a few points. I always end up learning a ton myself while writing them 😃

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yoramgondwe profile image
YoramGondwe

Thank the explanation is really clear

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Ebrahim Batran

I'm forwarding this to anyone who's still confused. It's the best!

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malloc007 profile image
Ryota Murakami

Thank you for write it!!
I still confuse about Array.prototype.splice() 😅

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chrisachard profile image
Chris Achard

Yeah, splice is confusing :) Maybe I'll try to do a writeup on that in the future!