How to remove empty array values ("") from an array?

Question

I have an two dimensional array, generated from a html table with jQuery, but some values are empty so "" is displayed.

How can I remove the empty values?

  <table>    
    <tr>
      <th>1A</th>
      <th>1B</th>
      <th>1C</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2A</td>
      <td>2B</td>
      <td>2C</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3B</td>
      <td>3C</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td></td>
      <td>4C</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
<script>
    var columns = $('tr').first().children().map(function(i) {
        return [
            $('tr').map(function(){
                return $(this).children().eq(i).text()
            }).get()
        ]
    }).get();
<script>

I already tried following code:

for( var i = 0; i < columns[0].length; i++){ 
   if ( columns[0][i] === "") {
    columns[0].splice(i, 1); 
   }
}

It worked for some empty values, but not all of them got removed for some reason.

Output: https://i.sstatic.net/LvMSt.jpg

Some demo code would be nice. Use jsfiddle or something please. As the blanks may be coming from many different things. — Deckerz
– Deckerz, Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 8:20
right after the for loop add columns = columns.filter(a => a!="") — alt255
– alt255, Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 8:20
Possible duplicate of Remove empty elements from an array in Javascript — jeprubio
– jeprubio, Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 8:24
Possible duplicate of Remove empty strings from array while keeping record Without Loop? — adiga
– adiga, Commented Apr 15, 2019 at 8:57

Domske · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-19 12:01:17Z

107

You could use the filter like:

arr = arr.filter(item => item);

Example:

let arr = ['One', 'Two', '', 'Four', '', ''];
arr = arr.filter(item => item);
console.log(arr);

// Result
// ['One', 'Two', 'Four']

Because an empty string evaluates to boolean false. It works with all falsy values like 0, false, null, undefined, '', etc.

DEMO

If you want to keep some values like number 0 (zero) you could use item !== undefined. This filters only undefined values. Keep in mind to trim your string or check with regex to ensure empty strings without whitespaces.

edited Nov 19, 2020 at 12:01

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 8:21

Domske

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1 Comment

DavChana Over a year ago

Worked in Google Apps Script too.

thedude · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 08:22:12Z

19

Try filtering with the Boolean function:

columns.filter(Boolean)

This will filter out all falsy values

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 8:22

thedude

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Comments

sassy_rog · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 08:24:19Z

4

It's because when you columns[0].splice(i, 1); you are changing the same array you are iterating over so you might want to use an array filter like

columns[0] = columns[0].filter((val) => val != "");

instead of the for loop

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 8:24

sassy_rog

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1 Comment

bugkiller Over a year ago

you shouldn't be using !=, this is bad practice.

shushu304 · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 08:21:59Z

3

after creating the columns array,

filter the empty values like that

columns = columns.filter((v) => v != '')

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 8:21

shushu304

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Comments

E_Vert · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 08:25:27Z

2

Just use filter function:-

columns = columns.filter(col => col);

It will remove empty values.

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 8:25

E_Vert

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Comments

Jack Bashford · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-15 08:27:46Z

2

If some values might be 0, filter by checking against "" (because 0 evaluates to false as well, so Boolean checks will fail for 0):

columns[0].filter(col => col != "");

answered Apr 15, 2019 at 8:27

Jack Bashford

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Comments

codedbychavez · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-23 14:31:52Z

1

In ES6, Lets say you have the following array:

arr = [1, 2, 3, '', false, '4'];

And you want to remove '' (Which is an empty value) from the array. You can do:

const filter = (...args) => args.filter(el => el !== '');
console.log(filter(...arr));
[1, 2, 3, false, "4"] // Output

Or Using Map (Regular JS)

const myArr = [1, 2, '', '4'];

noEmptyStringInThisArray = [];

myArr.map((elem) => {
    if (elem !== '') {
    noEmptyStringInThisArray.push(elem);
    }
})

console.log(noEmptyStringInThisArray);
// [1, 2, "4"]

edited Oct 23, 2021 at 14:31

answered Oct 23, 2021 at 13:46

codedbychavez

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1 Comment

vizon Over a year ago

For es6, that is quite a clunky way to remove empty strings. You can also: arr.filter(val => val);

bugkiller · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-22 10:45:18Z

1

i'm pretty surprised nobody gave the right accurate answer here.

in all of the Boolean based expressions here, you'd filter the results that you'd want to keep. for instance - "0", etc.

array.filter(item => item !== '')

answered Sep 22, 2022 at 10:45

bugkiller

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Comments

MTK · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-21 00:17:21Z

1

Supposing an array like this ['ABC123', '', 0, '0', ' ', null, undefined, empty]

and you consider "empty" '' or ' ' or null or undefined or empty but not 0

my_array = my_array.filter(item => item && (item.toString().replace(/\s+/,'') || item === 0));

the result is ['ABC123', 0, '0']

edited Nov 21, 2022 at 0:17

answered Oct 31, 2022 at 22:11

MTK

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Comments

Rohit Tagadiya · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-19 06:25:28Z

0

Easily you can remove empty , null , undefined values from an array.

let my_array = ['One', undefined, 'Two', '', null, 'Four', '', '', 'Five'];

my_array = my_array.filter((item) => item);

console.log(my_array);

answered Jan 19, 2021 at 6:25

Rohit Tagadiya

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Comments

OXiGEN · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-16 03:33:19Z

In case some types of falsy values need to be preserved, filter to include those before checking if the value is truthy. The example below preserves a numeric zero, but removes anything else that would be considered empty.

Conversely, specific types of empty values can be filtered out.

Finally, if there's no complexity about what empty means or does not mean, a simple check for a truthy value works.

let values = [0, 1, 0.0, 1.0, '0', '1', true, false, '', , null, undefined];

//keep numeric, remove all other empty values
console.log(values.filter(x => [0].includes(x) || x));

//only remove certain types of empty values
console.log(values.filter(x => ![null, undefined].includes(x)));

//only keep truthy values, remove all falsy values
console.log(values.filter(x => x));

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