How to Get the First Element from a Map in JavaScript

Get the First Element from a Map in JavaScript #

The easiest way to get the first element of a map is to use destructuring assignment.

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const map = new Map();

map.set('a', 1);
map.set('b', 2);

const [firstKey] = map.keys();
console.log(firstKey); // 👉️ a

const [firstValue] = map.values();
console.log(firstValue); // 👉️ 1

In the code snippet we called the keys() method on the map to get an iterator that contains the keys of each element in the map.

We then use destructuring assignment to get the first key and assign it to a variable.

To get the value of the first element, we repeat the same process, but call the values() method instead.

Another way to get the first element from a map is to convert the map into an array and access the element at index 0.

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const map = new Map();

map.set('a', 1);
map.set('b', 2);

const first = [...map][0];

console.log(first); // 👉️ ['a', 1]

In the code snippet we use the spread syntax to convert the map into an array and access the element at index 0.

This returns an array containing the key and value of the first element in the map.

We can also get the first element from a map by using some of the methods on the map instance.

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const map = new Map();

map.set('a', 1);
map.set('b', 2);

const iterator = map.entries();

const firstIteration = iterator.next(); // {value: ['a', 1], done: false}

const first = firstIteration.value;

console.log(first); // 👉️ ['a', 1]

In the code snippet, we first get an iterator containing the elements of the map.

We then an object containing the value of the first iteration.

Finally, we access the value property on the object to get an array of the key and value of the first element in the map.