JavaScript Delete Specific Item From Array

Deleting an item from an array is easy using JavaScript’s built-in method splice(). However, if you are somewhat new to scripting, simply knowing about splice does not help you remove a certain item from an array. This article will solidly state the solution to this dilemma.

If you want to remove a specific item from your array, you will simply use a basic loop and a conditional check with the splice() method.

Here is a breakdown of what we will do in 3 easy steps, so that you can implement this solution yourself later.

The Three Step Process

1. Setup a basic ‘for’ loop, iterating backwards
2. In the loop, test item for match
3. If so, splice the item at that point in the loop

Solid Tip: splice() takes 2 arguments (index of item to remove, number of items to remove). To ensure compatibility, don’t forget the 2nd.

Removing One Item

Here is our code example using the traditional fruit array. In this example, I want to remove ‘banana’ if it exists.

var myArray = ['apple','orange','banana','pear','peach'];
 
for(var i = myArray.length-1; i >= 0; i--){  // STEP 1
    if(myArray[i] == 'banana'){              // STEP 2
        myArray.splice(i,1);                 // STEP 3
    }
}
// returns [apple,orange,pear,peach]

Removing Multiple Items

The example above just removed ‘banana’ from the array, leaving four items left in the collection. Step 3 above myArray.splice(i,1) says to remove the item starting at index i and remove 1 item. If you used the number 2 instead of 1, it would have removed ‘banana’ AND ‘pear’.

If you want to test for 2 specific values, however, you can make a simple modification to step 2, as seen below. I have made the example loops iterate backward to allow this option.

var myArray = ['apple','orange','banana','pear','peach'];
 
for(var i = myArray.length-1; i >= 0; i--){              // STEP 1
    if(myArray[i] == 'banana' || myArray[i] == 'peach'){ // STEP 2
        myArray.splice(i,1);                             // STEP 3
    }
}	
// returns [apple,orange,pear]