Array.remove() Method

John Resig, creator of jQuery created a very handy Array.remove method that I always use it in my projects.

// Array Remove - By John Resig (MIT Licensed)
Array.prototype.remove = function(from, to) {
  var rest = this.slice((to || from) + 1 || this.length);
  this.length = from < 0 ? this.length + from : from;
  return this.push.apply(this, rest);
};

and here's some examples of how it could be used:

// Remove the second item from the array
array.remove(1);
// Remove the second-to-last item from the array
array.remove(-2);
// Remove the second and third items from the array
array.remove(1,2);
// Remove the last and second-to-last items from the array
array.remove(-2,-1);

John's website

Because delete only removes the object from the element in the array, the length of the array won't change. Splice removes the object and shortens the array.

The following code will display "a", "b", "undefined", "d"

myArray = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']; delete myArray[2];

for (var count = 0; count < myArray.length; count++) {
    alert(myArray[count]);
}

Whereas this will display "a", "b", "d"

myArray = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']; myArray.splice(2,1);

for (var count = 0; count < myArray.length; count++) {
    alert(myArray[count]);
}

I stumbled onto this question while trying to understand how to remove every occurrence of an element from an Array. Here's a comparison of splice and delete for removing every 'c' from the items Array.

var items = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'];

while (items.indexOf('c') !== -1) {
  items.splice(items.indexOf('c'), 1);
}

console.log(items); // ["a", "b", "d", "a", "b", "d"]

items = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'];

while (items.indexOf('c') !== -1) {
  delete items[items.indexOf('c')];
}

console.log(items); // ["a", "b", undefined, "d", "a", "b", undefined, "d"]
​

From Core JavaScript 1.5 Reference > Operators > Special Operators > delete Operator :

When you delete an array element, the array length is not affected. For example, if you delete a[3], a[4] is still a[4] and a[3] is undefined. This holds even if you delete the last element of the array (delete a[a.length-1]).

As stated many times above, using splice() seems like a perfect fit. Documentation at Mozilla:

The splice() method changes the content of an array by removing existing elements and/or adding new elements.

var myFish = ['angel', 'clown', 'mandarin', 'sturgeon'];

myFish.splice(2, 0, 'drum'); 
// myFish is ["angel", "clown", "drum", "mandarin", "sturgeon"]

myFish.splice(2, 1); 
// myFish is ["angel", "clown", "mandarin", "sturgeon"]

Syntax

array.splice(start)
array.splice(start, deleteCount)
array.splice(start, deleteCount, item1, item2, ...)

Parameters

start

Index at which to start changing the array. If greater than the length of the array, actual starting index will be set to the length of the array. If negative, will begin that many elements from the end.

deleteCount

An integer indicating the number of old array elements to remove. If deleteCount is 0, no elements are removed. In this case, you should specify at least one new element. If deleteCount is greater than the number of elements left in the array starting at start, then all of the elements through the end of the array will be deleted.

If deleteCount is omitted, deleteCount will be equal to (arr.length - start).

item1, item2, ...

The elements to add to the array, beginning at the start index. If you don't specify any elements, splice() will only remove elements from the array.