Remove the first Element from an Array in JavaScript

Remove the first Element from an Array #

Use the Array.shift() method to remove the first element from an array, e.g. const firstElement = arr.shift();. The shift method removes the first element from an array and returns the removed element.

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const arr = ['a', 'b', 'c'];

const firstElement = arr.shift();
console.log(firstElement); // 👉️ a

console.log(arr); // 👉️ ['b', 'c']

We used the Array.shift method to remove the first element from the array.

The shift method removes the array element at index 0.

If you call the Array.shift method on an empty array, the method returns undefined.

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const arr = [];

const firstElement = arr.shift();
console.log(firstElement); // 👉️ undefined

console.log(arr); // 👉️ []

An alternative is to create a copy of the array starting with the second element.

Use the array.slice() method to remove the first element from an array, e.g. const withoutFirst = arr.slice(1);. The slice() method will return a shallow copy of the original array starting with the second element.

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const arr = ['a', 'b', 'c'];

const withoutFirst = arr.slice(1);
console.log(withoutFirst); // 👉️ ['b', 'c']

console.log(arr); // 👉️ ['a', 'b', 'c']

We passed a starting index of 1 and no end index to the Array.slice method.

The method returns a shallow copy of the original array containing the elements from index 1 onwards.

The Array.slice method is very different from Array.shift because it doesn't change the contents of the original array.

Further Reading #

• Check if Array has all Elements of Another Array - JavaScript
• Check if Arrays contain Common Elements in JavaScript
• Check if Array Contains an Object in JavaScript
• Make Array.indexOf() case insensitive in JavaScript
• Filter an Array of Objects based on a property - JavaScript
• Filter an Array with Multiple Conditions in JavaScript
• Get the first N elements from an Array in JavaScript
• Get the last N elements from an Array in JavaScript
• How to check if an Array Index exists in JavaScript
• Remove Undefined Values from an Array in JavaScript
• Remove Null Values from an Array in Javascript
• Remove Empty Elements from an Array in JavaScript