Javascript: check if an object within a multidimensional array has a certain property and then remove that object

Question

I have a multidimensional array, like this:

[
    [ 
        { name: "jeff", job: "cleaner" }, 
        { name: "kate", job: "cashier" } 
    ],
    [ 
        { name: "alice", job: "engineer" },
        { name: "sean", job: "writer" },
        { name: "ruby", job: "police officer" }
    ],
    [ 
        { name: "sarah", job: "writer" }, 
        { name: "john", job: "cleaner" } 
    ]
]

I'm looking for a fast and concise way to find an object within this structure where one of the properties matches a certain value and then remove that object entirely.

For example, say I want to find all objects where the property of job is writer and remove those objects from the structure.

Please bare in mind that I would like keep the current structure of this array completely intact, with just the relevant objects removed.

Array.prototype.filter() is your friend, though it does not edit in place - otherwise check _.remove, to be iterated on every entry of the outermost array. — moonwave99
– moonwave99, Commented May 17, 2015 at 18:26
What is the purpose of the outer array? Will the relevant inner array always be at [0]? — Dylan Watt
– Dylan Watt, Commented May 17, 2015 at 18:27
@DylanWatt The structure represents rows and columns. And yes, all the inner arrays will always be at that level - the structure will not get any deeper. — shrewdbeans
– shrewdbeans, Commented May 17, 2015 at 18:30
@shrewdbeans If you have enough nodes that you need to consider performance, you would want to look into maintaining a lookup map. {cleaner:[], writer:[]} etc. That would allow fast lookup of each job, and the entities that contain it. However, how the lookup map is created/maintained is still an issue. In general, you have to get pretty large to need to do this. Javascript is amazing at arrays, I've dealt with 1 million+ sized arrays client side, and it handled it like a champ on modern CPU/browsers. — Dylan Watt
– Dylan Watt, Commented May 17, 2015 at 19:23

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:43:43Z

2

I used a hasOwnProperty function which I do not take credit for from this question.

You can do it like this, using that function:

arr.forEach(function (subArr, index, myArr) {
    myArr[index] = subArr.filter(function (obj) {
        if (hasOwnProperty(obj, "job") && obj["job"] === "writer") {
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    });
});

Fiddle

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:43

CommunityBot

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answered May 17, 2015 at 18:38

Omri Aharon

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1 Comment

Edwin Reynoso Over a year ago

shorter: return !(hasOwnProperty(obj, "job") && obj["job"] === "writer")

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