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JavaScript JavaScript Foundations Arrays Methods: Part 1

Mark Bradshaw
PLUS
Mark Bradshaw
Courses Plus Student 7,658 Points
Posted by Mark Bradshaw
Mark Bradshaw
Courses Plus Student 7,658 Points

Really lost on this question. doesn't make sense based on the lesson.

On line 18, use a method on the 'spareWords' to set 'firstWord' to be first word of the 'spareWords' array whilst simultaneously removing it from the beginning of the array. 16 var spareWords = ["The","chimney","sweep's","dog"]; 17 var saying = ["quick", "brown", "fox", "jumps", "over", "the", "lazy"]; 18 var firstWord = spareWords; 19 var lastWord = spareWords;

I know how to add and remove an element using unshift and shift, but nothing that i've done has worked here. The simultaneously part is also very confusing.

1 Answer

Erwin Meesters
Erwin Meesters
15,088 Points
Erwin Meesters
Erwin Meesters
15,088 Points

You are really close: You can use shift() to take the first element of an array and remove it. To assign it to the variable firstWord try this:

var firstWord = spareWords.shift();

notf0und
notf0und
11,940 Points

Mark, while Erwin has provided a good answer, I do suggest reading up on the .shift() method to fully understand how and why it works: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/shift.

To quote from that article: "The shift method removes the element at the zeroeth index and shifts the values at consecutive indexes down, then returns the removed value. If the length property is 0, undefined is returned." So while it removes the value at index 0, it also returns that value, allowing you to set it to the firstWord variable.

I hope that helps a bit in understanding .shift().

Mark Bradshaw
Mark Bradshaw
Courses Plus Student 7,658 Points
Mark Bradshaw
Mark Bradshaw
Courses Plus Student 7,658 Points

Thanks Erwin. Cheers. I have more reviewing to do in this area. Thanks for posting the article Ryan.

Mark Bradshaw
Mark Bradshaw
Courses Plus Student 7,658 Points
Mark Bradshaw
Mark Bradshaw
Courses Plus Student 7,658 Points

Thanks Erwin. Cheers. I have more reviewing to do in this area. Thanks for posting the article Ryan.