How to remove a specific value from a javascript array

Reading time: About 1 minute

I couldn’t find a short and sweet answer to this one, so I made an answer and I’m sharing it here if you need it. Enjoy!

// from this
var arr = ['remove', 'specific', 'value', 'from', 'javascript', 'array']; // 6 items
 
// to this ("specific" value removed)
var arr = ['remove', 'value', 'from', 'javascript', 'array']; //  5 items
 
// use this (removes "specific")
arr.splice(arr.indexOf('specific'), 1);
 
 
// full example
var arr = ['remove', 'specific', 'value', 'from', 'javascript', 'array'];
var value_to_remove = 'specific';
arr.splice(arr.indexOf(value_to_remove), 1);
 
 
// note: to support IE (anger rising as I type), you'll need this (thanks James!):
if (!Array.prototype.indexOf)
{
  Array.prototype.indexOf = function(elt /*, from*/)
  {
    var len = this.length >>> 0;
 
    var from = Number(arguments[1]) || 0;
    from = (from < 0)
         ? Math.ceil(from)
         : Math.floor(from);
    if (from < 0)
      from += len;
 
    for (; from < len; from++)
    {
      if (from in this &&
          this[from] === elt)
        return from;
    }
    return -1;
  };
}

14 comments skip to comment form

Christopher Scott said— 21 minutes later

Dude; that’s awesome…i’m adding this to my code collection

#1
Brian Cray said— 27 minutes later

Glad you liked it Christopher =)

#2
saurabh shah said— 51 minutes later

cool ! nice t0 see this handy tip !

#3
Cameron said— 2 hours later

Nice one Bri! very cool! Definitely going to save this one!

#4
Brian Cray said— 16 hours later

Thanks guys!

#5
David said— 2 days later

Keep in mind if you pass a value_to_remove that is NOT in the array, then you will remove the last one.

#6
anthony said— 2 days later

This doesnt seem to work in IE. Arrays dont seem to have an indexOf function.

#7
Brian Cray said— 2 days later

David: Very good point!

Anthony: Interesting… which version of IE?

#8
James said— 3 days later

The indexOf method is not supported everywhere, at least not for arrays. To fix this you can simply roll your own one, see: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference:Objects:Array:indexOf

#9
Brian Cray said— 4 days later

James, thanks for the awesome link! Definitely good piece of code to have for backwards support! Really, thanks!

#10
lukemh said— 4 days later

how is this new? all you did is use slice?

#11
lukemh said— 4 days later

*splice

#12
Jayaprakash said— 4 days later

Brian, it would be better if you update the original code with the changes pointed out by James. I mean show the code to integrate the indexOf method in Array object.

As pointed out the original script will not work in IE environment without this modification.

#13
Brian Cray said— 5 days later

Lukemh: Not everybody knows this combination will result in what it does. How many times have you search Google for a piece of code that did one particular thing?

Jaya: You’re right. Updated.

#14
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