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Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

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Top 20 JavaScript tips and tricks to increase your Speed and Efficiency

Convenient and useful techniques to reduce the lines of code and pace up your Dev Work!

In our daily tasks, we get to write functions such as sorting, searching, finding unique values, passing parameters, swapping values etc, so here I present my list of shorthand techniques to write all of them as a Pro!✌🏻

Increase Your Performance

JavaScript is truly an awesome language💛 to learn and work with. And there can be more than one approach to reach to the same solution for given problem. In this article, we will discuss only the quickest ones.🚀

These approaches will definitely help you in:

  • Reducing the number of LOC(lines of code),
  • Coding Competitions,
  • Hackathons or
  • Other time bound tasks.⏱

Most of these JavaScript Hacks uses techniques from ECMAScript6(ES2015) onwards, though the latest version is ECMAScript11(ES2020).

Note: All below tricks have been tested on the Console of Google Chrome.

1. Declare and Initialize Arrays

We can initialize array of particular size with default values like "", null or 0. You might have used these for the 1-D array but how about initializing 2-D array/matrix?

const array = Array(5).fill(''); 
// Output 
(5) ["", "", "", "", ""]

const matrix = Array(5).fill(0).map(()=>Array(5).fill(0)); 
// Output
(5) [Array(5), Array(5), Array(5), Array(5), Array(5)]
0: (5) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
1: (5) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
2: (5) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
3: (5) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
4: (5) [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
length: 5
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2. Find out the sum, minimum and maximum value

We should make use of reduce method to quickly find basic maths operations.

const array  = [5,4,7,8,9,2];
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  • Sum
array.reduce((a,b) => a+b);
// Output: 35
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  • Max
array.reduce((a,b) => a>b?a:b);
// Output: 9
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  • Min
array.reduce((a,b) => a<b?a:b);
// Output: 2
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3. Sorting Array of String, Numbers or Objects

We have inbuilt methods sort() and reverse() for sorting strings but How about numbers or array of objects?
Let's check out sorting hacks for Numbers and Objects in Increasing and Decreasing order as well.

  • Sort String Array
const stringArr = ["Joe", "Kapil", "Steve", "Musk"]
stringArr.sort();
// Output
(4) ["Joe", "Kapil", "Musk", "Steve"]

stringArr.reverse();
// Output
(4) ["Steve", "Musk", "Kapil", "Joe"]
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  • Sort Number Array
const array  = [40, 100, 1, 5, 25, 10];
array.sort((a,b) => a-b);
// Output
(6) [1, 5, 10, 25, 40, 100]

array.sort((a,b) => b-a);
// Output
(6) [100, 40, 25, 10, 5, 1]
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  • Sort Array of Objects
const objectArr = [ 
    { first_name: 'Lazslo', last_name: 'Jamf'     },
    { first_name: 'Pig',    last_name: 'Bodine'   },
    { first_name: 'Pirate', last_name: 'Prentice' }
];
objectArr.sort((a, b) => a.last_name.localeCompare(b.last_name));
// Output
(3) [{}, {}, {}]
0: {first_name: "Pig", last_name: "Bodine"}
1: {first_name: "Lazslo", last_name: "Jamf"}
2: {first_name: "Pirate", last_name: "Prentice"}
length: 3
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4. Ever need to filter falsy values out of an array?

Falsy values like 0, undefined, null, false, "", '' can be omitted easily through below trick

const array = [3, 0, 6, 7, '', false];
array.filter(Boolean);
// Output
(3) [3, 6, 7]
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5. Use Logical Operators for various conditions

If you want to reduce nested if..else or switch cases, you can simply play with basic of logical operators AND/OR.

function doSomething(arg1){ 
    arg1 = arg1 || 10; 
// set arg1 to 10 as a default if it’s not already set
return arg1;
}

let foo = 10;  
foo === 10 && doSomething(); 
// is the same thing as if (foo == 10) then doSomething();
// Output: 10

foo === 5 || doSomething();
// is the same thing as if (foo != 5) then doSomething();
// Output: 10
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6. Remove Duplicates values

You might have used indexOf() with for loop which return first found index or newer one includes() which returns boolean true/false from the array to find out/remove duplicates. Here's we have 2 quicker approaches.

const array  = [5,4,7,8,9,2,7,5];
array.filter((item,idx,arr) => arr.indexOf(item) === idx);
// or
const nonUnique = [...new Set(array)];
// Output: [5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 2]
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7. Create a Counter Object or Map

Most of the time, the requirement to solve problem by creating counter object or map which tracks variables as keys with their frequency/occurrences as values.

let string = 'kapilalipak';

const table={}; 
for(let char of string) {
  table[char]=table[char]+1 || 1;
}
// Output
{k: 2, a: 3, p: 2, i: 2, l: 2}
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and

const countMap = new Map();
  for (let i = 0; i < string.length; i++) {
    if (countMap.has(string[i])) {
      countMap.set(string[i], countMap.get(string[i]) + 1);
    } else {
      countMap.set(string[i], 1);
    }
  }
// Output
Map(5) {"k" => 2, "a" => 3, "p" => 2, "i" => 2, "l" => 2}
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8. Ternary Operator is cool

You can avoid nested conditional if..elseif..elseif with ternary operators.

function Fever(temp) {
    return temp > 97 ? 'Visit Doctor!'
      : temp < 97 ? 'Go Out and Play!!'
      : temp === 97 ? 'Take Some Rest!';
}

// Output
Fever(97): "Take Some Rest!" 
Fever(100): "Visit Doctor!"
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9. Quicker for loops compare to legacy onces

  • for and for..in gets you index by default, but you can use arr[index].
  • for..in accepts non numeric as well so avoid it.
  • forEach, for...of gets you element directly.
  • forEach can get you index also but for...of can't.
  • for and for...of considers holes in array but other 2 do not.

10. Merge 2 objects

Often we need to merge multiple objects in our daily tasks.

const user = { 
 name: 'Kapil Raghuwanshi', 
 gender: 'Male' 
 };
const college = { 
 primary: 'Mani Primary School', 
 secondary: 'Lass Secondary School' 
 };
const skills = { 
 programming: 'Extreme', 
 swimming: 'Average', 
 sleeping: 'Pro' 
 };

const summary = {...user, ...college, ...skills};

// Output 
gender: "Male"
name: "Kapil Raghuwanshi"
primary: "Mani Primary School"
programming: "Extreme"
secondary: "Lass Secondary School"
sleeping: "Pro"
swimming: "Average"
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11. Arrow Functions

An arrow function expression is a compact alternative to a traditional function expression, but is limited and can't be used in all situations. Since they have lexical scope (parental scope) and does not have their own this and arguments hence they refer to the environment in which they are defined.

const person = {
name: 'Kapil',
sayName() {
    return this.name;
    }
}
person.sayName();
// Output
"Kapil"
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But

const person = {
name: 'Kapil',
sayName : () => {
    return this.name;
    }
}
person.sayName();
// Output
""
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12. Optional Chaining

The optional chaining ?. stops the evaluation if the value before ?. is undefined or null and returns undefined.

const user = {
  employee: {
    name: "Kapil"
  }
};
user.employee?.name;
// Output: "Kapil"
user.employ?.name;
// Output: undefined
user.employ.name
// Output: VM21616:1 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'name' of undefined
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13. Shuffle an Array

Making use of inbuilt Math.random() method.

const list = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9];
list.sort(() => {
    return Math.random() - 0.5;
});
// Output
(9) [2, 5, 1, 6, 9, 8, 4, 3, 7]
// Call it again
(9) [4, 1, 7, 5, 3, 8, 2, 9, 6]
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14. Nullish Coalescing Operator

The nullish coalescing operator (??) is a logical operator that returns its right-hand side operand when its left-hand side operand is null or undefined, and otherwise returns its left-hand side operand.

const foo = null ?? 'my school';
// Output: "my school"

const baz = 0 ?? 42;
// Output: 0
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15. Rest & Spread operators

Those mysterious 3 dots ... can rest or spread!🤓

function myFun(a,  b, ...manyMoreArgs) {
   return arguments.length;
}
myFun("one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six");

// Output: 6
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and

const parts = ['shoulders', 'knees']; 
const lyrics = ['head', ...parts, 'and', 'toes']; 

lyrics;
// Output: 
(5) ["head", "shoulders", "knees", "and", "toes"]
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16. Default Parameters

const search = (arr, low=0,high=arr.length-1) => {
    return high;
}
search([1,2,3,4,5]);

// Output: 4
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17. Convert Decimal to Binary or Hexa

We can use some in-built methods like .toPrecision() or .toFixed() to achieve much of helping functionalities while solving problems.

const num = 10;

num.toString(2);
// Output: "1010"
num.toString(16);
// Output: "a"
num.toString(8);
// Output: "12"
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18. Simple Swap 2 values using Destructuring

let a = 5;
let b = 8;
[a,b] = [b,a]

[a,b]
// Output
(2) [8, 5]
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19. Single-liner Palindrome check

Well, this is not a shorthand trick overall but it will give you clear idea to play with strings.

function checkPalindrome(str) {
  return str == str.split('').reverse().join('');
}
checkPalindrome('naman');
// Output: true
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20. Turn Object attributes into an Array of attributes

Using Object.entries(),Object.keys() and Object.values()

const obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3 };

Object.entries(obj);
// Output
(3) [Array(2), Array(2), Array(2)]
0: (2) ["a", 1]
1: (2) ["b", 2]
2: (2) ["c", 3]
length: 3

Object.keys(obj);
(3) ["a", "b", "c"]

Object.values(obj);
(3) [1, 2, 3]
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So that's it guys for now! 🤗

If you know few more hacks like above, let's collaborate through GitHub Repository, so that we can all learn them together.

If you really learned something new with this article or it really made your dev work faster than before, like it, save it and share it with your colleagues.

I have been writing tech blogs for quite a time now, and have mostly published through my Medium account, this is my first tech article/tutorial in Dev.to. Hope you guys will shower love to it!🤩

Let’s be connected on LinkedIn and Twitter for more such engaging Tech Articles and Tutorials.🤝

Top comments (48)

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martinmuzatko profile image
Martin Muzatko

min: Math.min(...numbers)
max: Math.max(...numbers)

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tommus profile image
Thomas Smith

Exactly, not sure of the advantage of using reduce over these common functions.

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andrewbridge profile image
Andrew Bridge

I'd go further and agree with this thread and follow up video that advise against using reduce in nearly every situation. It's often used when a simpler or more readable alternative is available, and leads to harder to read, harder to maintain code. As proven with this example above.

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

Well, of course above methods seems simpler for finding min/max but one should not underestimate the power of reduce in JavaScript. There are several technique where you can solve problems mostly in one reduce statements only.

Thread Thread
 
erasmuswill profile image
Wilhelm Erasmus

But in this case a helper method that does the full job exists so why bother with reduce for this use case? I admittedly do not use it enough but just saying

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liquorburn profile image
liquorburn • Edited

I've made a simple benchmark, it seems that reduce() is faster than Math.max()

dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

That's awesome @liquorburn . I have added the fastest one only.

Thread Thread
 
tommus profile image
Thomas Smith • Edited

It's actually the spread operator that's taking the time there. Though admittedly, there aren't many cases you'd have a hardcoded list of values to find the max of, it's worth pointing out.

dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥 • Edited

Thanks for reminding this tip @martinmuzatko .

const array = [4,5,7,2,3];
Math.min(...array)
// Output: 2
Math.max(...array)
// Output: 7
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boydevelopr profile image
FredDev

Please what tool is used to make this code snippet embedment on the pages?

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

These are just code test only. Use 3 backticks before and after your code. Check the preview.

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lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

About the logical operators in 5, you should always be aware of their defined behavior:

  • a && b yields b if a is truthy, otherwise false
  • a || b yields the first value of a, b that is truthy

This means that a || b && c will return a if it a is truthy. If you are using a tool like prettier, you can just use brackets everywhere and let it figure out where they can be removed safely.

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥 • Edited

I second that @lexlohr ! Nice suggestion to keep in mind.

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manoharreddyporeddy profile image
Manohar Reddy Poreddy

Cool
Have a github too so other can collab.
Also fix the bug in

return temp > 97 ? 'Visit Doctor!'
      : temp < 97 ? 'Feel Better!'
      : temp === 97 ? 'Take Some Rest!'
      : 'Go Out and Play!';
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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

Thanks @manoharreddyporeddy . Astonishing Idea of GitHub. Will create the repo and update the link in the post itself for further collaboration.

Nevertheless, what error are you pointing out in above snippet?

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manoharreddyporeddy profile image
Manohar Reddy Poreddy
return temp > 97 ? 'Visit Doctor!'
      : temp < 97 ? 'Feel Better!'
      : temp === 97 ? 'Take Some Rest!'
      : 'Go Out and Play!';
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can be

return temp > 97 ? 'Visit Doctor!'
      : temp < 97 ? 'Feel Better!'
      : 'Take Some Rest!' ;
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OR

return temp > 97 ? 'Visit Doctor!'
      : temp < 97 ? 'Feel Better!'
      : 'Go Out and Play!';
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Reason is a number can only be < or > or === 97.
There can't be a 4th option.

Hope it's clear now.
Will wait for your github link.

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

Oh I got that one now! Updated.

Here is the link for the GitHub repo, github.com/kapilraghuwanshi/quick-.... Need to finalize the repo structure and PR etc, if you have suggestions please add to that repo.

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adirtyshame profile image
Thomas • Edited

Looks like the classic FizzBuzz test

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snigo profile image
Igor Snitkin

Looks more like “Hey, I know a bit of JS” rather than tips really. Let’s start with one, can you think of a way to make the matrix in a bit more efficient manner (hint: 2 iterations less), so it starts looking like a tip that will make me more efficient as advertised

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

Well thanks for the comment @snigo . And I didn't want to sound like “Hey, I know a bit of JS”, if I did, share the points/sentences, will try to fix them.
However, as I pointed out earlier in the post that - there can be more than one approaches to the same problem, so feel free to share yours here.

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snigo profile image
Igor Snitkin

Enjoy:

const matrix = (x, y = x, fillValue = 0) => Array.from({ length: y }, () => Array(x).fill(fillValue));
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Now, number two: what's going to be the sum of an empty array in your example?

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

How about these two?

const arr = Array.from(Array(4).fill('O'), () => new Array(4).fill('O'));
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const arr = [...Array(8)].map(() => Array(8).fill("0"))
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snigo profile image
Igor Snitkin • Edited

If we talk about efficiency, then we first need to figure out .map or .from:

  • map: maps over elements returning new array 👎
  • from: mapFn maps over elements in place 👍

So from, which leaves us with the question what we're going to create our array from, right? So if we compare:

// Array from array
Array.from(Array(3), () => Array(3).fill(0));

// Array from object
Array.from({ length: 3 }, () => Array(3).fill(0));
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...it will boil down to the question what's more efficient to create Array(3) or { length: 3 }, and given arrays in JS are just objects it really comes to the number of properties we need to create for the object. How many properties does Array(3) have? (hint: 4) How many properties does { length: 3 } have? (hint: 1)

I hope this will clear things a bit

Thread Thread
 
techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

Awesome and detailed explanation @snigo . ✌🏻
I have created GitHub Repo, feel free to contribute to that.
Thanks!🤗

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rockson profile image
Rok Zigon
   arg1 = arg1 || 10; 
// set arg1 to 10 as a default if it’s not already set 
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Comment should warn that if you use || to provide some default value, you may encounter unexpected behaviors if you consider some falsy values as usable (e.g., '' or 0).

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erasmuswill profile image
Wilhelm Erasmus

You're making me relive production drama right here :(

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vladimirc profile image
Vladimir C

Never use ternary operators to replace more than a single if...else. Otherwise, it quickly becomes unreadable and error-prone. The example from your post is an excellent proof of this :'D

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bugb profile image
bugb • Edited

Unfortunately, in the real life, data are much more complex, I think if you can share about how to composite functions then it should be very helpful.

My tips

const string = 'kapilalipak';
[...string].reduce((m,n)=>({...m,[n]:-~m[n]}),{})
// {"k":2,"a":3,"p":2,"i":2,"l":2}

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pazka profile image
Alexandre Weisser

I would advise to not use nested ternary operators as it is considered a code smell

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techygeeky profile image
Kapil Raghuwanshi🖥

Can you share the disadvantages with code snippets ?

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pazka profile image
Alexandre Weisser

Sorry I don't have the time nor the patience at the moment but I can at least detail my answer :

Simply, if you think about the Signal-to-Noise ratio, nesting ternary operator will more often lead to error when sigh treading and ask more energy to be understood for the sake of a very few line of code.

In this particular case, writing a more explicit comparison will be better for the whole understanding of the code flow. with "ifs" or juste split it in more lines of ternary attribution.

Also, if you should write half a dozen comparison for the attribution of a variable, you should put it in a specific function that will be named accordingly and this will greatly improve this part of the code.

For more information, you can look in the ESLint documentation for this specific code smell : eslint.org/docs/rules/no-nested-te...

Also thank you for your post !

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devsmitra profile image
Rahul Sharma

check more functions like this
devsmitra.github.io/javascript-qui...

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erasmuswill profile image
Wilhelm Erasmus

Good article man, I just have a couple of comments further to the above:

6: I believe this approach only works if you are using strings or numbers, not objects

17: Earlier today, I learned that parseInt can also be used in this way. The second argument defines the number system base