JavaScript flattening an array of arrays of objects
I have an array which contains several arrays, each containing several objects, similar to this.
[[object1, object2],[object1],[object1,object2,object3]]
Here is a screenhot of the object logged to the console.
What would be the best approach to flattening this out so it just an array of objects?
I've tried this with no luck:
console.log(searchData);
var m = [].concat.apply([],searchData);
console.log(m);
searchData logs out the screenshot above, but m logs out [ ]
Here is the actual contents of searchData:
[[{"_id":"55064111d06b96d974937a6f","title":"Generic Title","shortname":"generic-title","contents":"<p>The Healing Center offers practical, social, and spiritual support to individuals and families. Services include, but are not limited to: food and clothing, job skills training and job search assistance, auto repair (Saturdays only), mentoring, financial counseling, tutoring, prayer, life skills training, and helpful information about local community services.</p><p>Stay in touch with us:</p>","__v":0},{"_id":"5508e1405c621d4aad2d2969","title":"test english","shortname":"test-page","contents":"<h2>English Test</h2>","__v":0}],[{"_id":"550b336f33a326aaee84f883","shortname":"ok-url","title":"now english","contents":"<p>okokko</p>","category":"Transportation","__v":0}]]
Solution 1:
You can use Array.concat like bellow:-
var arr = [['object1', 'object2'],['object1'],['object1','object2','object3']];
var flattened = [].concat.apply([],arr);
flattened
will be your expected array.
ES 2020 gives the flat, also flatMap if you want to iterate over, to flat lists of lists:
[['object1'], ['object2']].flat() // ['object1', 'object2']
Solution 2:
A recursive solution for deep (nested) flattening:
function flatten(a) {
return Array.isArray(a) ? [].concat.apply([], a.map(flatten)) : a;
}
A bit more compactly with ES6:
var flatten = a => Array.isArray(a) ? [].concat(...a.map(flatten)) : a;
For fun, using a generator named F
for "flatten", to lazily generate flattened values:
function *F(a) {
if (Array.isArray(a)) for (var e of a) yield *F(e); else yield a;
}
>> console.log(Array.from(F([1, [2], 3])));
<< [ 1, 2, 3 ]
For those not familiar with generators the yield *
syntax yields values from another generator. Array.from
takes an iterator (such as results from invoking the generator function) and turns it into an array.