2. Tutorials
  3. Split an Array Into Smaller Array Chunks in JavaScript and Node.js

Split an Array Into Smaller Array Chunks in JavaScript and Node.js

We recently ran into a problem with a large array. The number of items in the array was too large to process them at once. We wanted to offload smaller chunks of these items to a queue worker.

This tutorial shows you how to split an array into a list of smaller chunks.

Node.js Series Overview

  1. Increase the Memory Limit for Your Process
  2. Why You Should Add “node” in Your Travis Config
  3. Create a PDF from HTML with Puppeteer and Handlebars
  4. Create Your Own Custom Error
  5. Retrieve a Request’s IP Address in Node.js
  6. Detect the Node.js Version in a Running Process or App
  7. How to Base64 Encode/Decode a Value in Node.js
  8. Check if a Value Is Null or Undefined in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. How to Fix “Uncaught SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module”
  10. Fix „Socket Hang Up“ Errors
  11. Nested Destructuring in JavaScript or Node.js
  1. String Replace All Appearances
  2. Remove All Whitespace From a String in JavaScript
  3. Generate a Random ID or String in Node.js or JavaScript
  4. Remove Extra Spaces From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  5. Remove Numbers From a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  6. Get the Part Before a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  7. Get the Part After a Character in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  8. How to Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. Check If a String Includes All Strings in JavaScript/Node.js/TypeScript
  10. Check if a Value is a String in JavaScript and Node.js
  11. Limit and Truncate a String to a Given Length in JavaScript and Node.js
  12. Split a String into a List of Characters in JavaScript and Node.js
  13. How to Generage a UUID in Node.js
  14. Reverse a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  15. Split a String into a List of Lines in JavaScript or Node.js
  16. Split a String into a List of Words in JavaScript or Node.js
  17. Detect if a String is in camelCase Format in Javascript or Node.js
  18. Check If a String Is in Lowercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  19. Check If a String is in Uppercase in JavaScript or Node.js
  20. Get the Part After First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  21. Get the Part Before First Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  22. Get the Part Before Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  23. Get the Part After Last Occurrence in a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  24. How to Count Words in a File
  25. How to Shuffle the Characters of a String in JavaScript or Node.js
  26. Append Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  27. Check if a String is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  28. Ensure a String Ends with a Given Character in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  29. Left-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  30. Right-Trim Characters Off a String in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  31. Lowercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  32. Uppercase the First Character of a String in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  33. Prepend Characters or Words to a String in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  1. Filter Data in Streams
  1. Get Number of Seconds Since Epoch in JavaScript
  2. Get Tomorrow’s Date in JavaScript
  3. Increase a Date in JavaScript by One Week
  4. Add Seconds to a Date in Node.js and JavaScript
  5. Add Month(s) to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js
  6. Add Week(s) to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js
  7. Get the Current Year in JavaScript or Node.js
  8. How to Get a UNIX Timestamp in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. How to Convert a UNIX Timestamp to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js
  10. Add Days to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js
  11. Get Yesterday's Date in JavaScript or Node.js
  12. Add Minutes to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  13. Add Hours to a Date in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  14. Check If a Date Is Today in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  15. Check If a Date is Tomorrow in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  16. Check If a Date is Yesterday in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  17. How to Format a Date YYYY-MM-DD in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  1. How to Run an Asynchronous Function in Array.map()
  2. How to Reset and Empty an Array
  3. for…of vs. for…in Loops
  4. Clone/Copy an Array in JavaScript and Node.js
  5. Get an Array With Unique Values (Delete Duplicates)
  6. Sort an Array of Integers in JavaScript and Node.js
  7. Sort a Boolean Array in JavaScript, TypeScript, or Node.js
  8. Check If an Array Contains a Given Value in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. Add an Item to the Beginning of an Array in JavaScript or Node.js
  10. Append an Item at the End of an Array in JavaScript or Node.js
  11. How to Exit and Stop a for Loop in JavaScript and Node.js
  12. Split an Array Into Smaller Array Chunks in JavaScript and Node.js
  13. How to Get an Index in a for…of Loop in JavaScript and Node.js
  14. How to Exit, Stop, or Break an Array#forEach Loop in JavaScript or Node.js
  15. Retrieve a Random Item From an Array in JavaScript or Node.js
  16. How to Reverse an Array in JavaScript and Node.js
  17. Sort an Array of Strings in JavaScript, TypeScript or Node.js
  18. Sort an Array of Objects in JavaScript, TypeScript or Node.js
  19. Check If a Value Is an Array in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  20. Join an Array of Strings to a Single String Value (Coming soon)
  1. Callback and Promise Support in your Node.js Modules
  2. Run Async Functions/Promises in Sequence
  3. Run Async Functions/Promises in Parallel
  4. Run Async Functions in Batches
  5. How to Fix “Promise resolver undefined is not a function” in Node.js or JavaScript
  6. Detect if Value Is a Promise in Node.js and JavaScript
  7. Overview of Promise-Based APIs in Node.js
  1. Human-Readable JSON.stringify() With Spaces and Line Breaks
  2. Write a JSON Object to a File
  3. Create a Custom “toJSON” Function in Node.js and JavaScript
  4. Securely Parse JSON
  1. Check If a Value Is Iterable in JavaScript or Node.js
  1. Extend Multiple Classes (Multi Inheritance)
  2. Retrieve the Class Name at Runtime in JavaScript and Node.js
  1. Generate a Random Number in Range With JavaScript/Node.js
  2. Ensure a Positive Number in JavaScript or Node.js
  3. Check if a Number Is Infinity
  4. Check If a Number has Decimal Places in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  5. Use Numeric Separators for Better Readability (Coming soon)
  1. How to Merge Objects
  2. How to Check if an Object is Empty in JavaScript or Node.js
  3. How to CamelCase Keys of an Object in JavaScript or Node.js
  4. How to Snake_Case Keys of an Object in JavaScript or Node.js
  5. How to Destructure a Dynamic Key in JavaScript or Node.js
  6. How to Get All Keys (Including Symbols) from an Object in JavaScript or Node.js
  7. How to Delete a Key From an Object in JavaScript or Node.js
  8. Iterate Through an Object’s Keys and Values in JavaScript or Node.js
  9. How to Convert URLSearchParams to Object
  10. Check If a Value Is an Object in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  11. Conditionally Add Properties to an Object in JavaScript or Node.js (Coming soon)
  1. Get a File’s Created Date
  2. Get a File’s Last Modified or Updated Date of a File
  3. How to Create an Empty File
  4. Check If a Path or File Exists
  5. How to Rename a File
  6. Check If a Path Is a Directory
  7. Check If a Path Is a File
  8. Retrieve the Path to the User’s Home Directory
  9. How to Touch a File
  10. Read File Content as String
  11. Check If a Directory Is Empty
  12. How to Create a Directory (and Parents If Needed)
  13. Get a File‘s Extension
  14. Get the Size of a File
  15. Get a File Name (With or Without Extension)
  16. Read a JSON File
  1. Create From Object
  2. Transform to an Object
  1. Determine the Node.js Version Running Your Script
  1. Check if a Value is a Symbol in JavaScript or Node.js
  1. Detect if Running on Linux
  2. Detect if Running on macOS
  3. Detect if Running on Windows
  4. Check if Running on 64bit or 32bit Platform
  5. Constant for Platform-Specific Newline
  1. How to Download a File
  1. Calculate an MD5 Hash
  2. Retrieve the List of Supported Hash Algorithms
  3. Calculate a SHA256 Hash

Divide and Chunk an Array Into Smaller Arrays

This approach of dividing an array into smaller chunks assumes a fixed chunk size. For example, we want to split the array [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] into chunks of three items. The result of chunking the source array should look like this:

[
  [1, 2, 3],
  [4, 5, 6],
  [7, 8]
]

JavaScript comes with the Array#splice method. The splice method removes items from an array and returns them as a new array. This way, you can remove the number of items from the source array until it’s empty.

Here’s a sample implementation for a chunk(items, size) function:

/**
 * Split the `items` array into multiple, smaller arrays of the given `size`.
 *
 * @param {Array} items
 * @param {Number} size
 *
 * @returns {Array[]}
 */
function chunk (items, size) {  
  const chunks = []
  items = [].concat(...items)

  while (items.length) {
    chunks.push(
      items.splice(0, size)
    )
  }

  return chunks
}

// Example

const items = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

chunk(items, 3)  
// [ [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8] ]

The basic idea of this function is to remove items from the source array and push the removed elements array to the result array. The result contains all smaller chunks for further processing.

Use the @supercharge/collections Package

I’m the maintainer of the @supercharge/collections package providing convenient array utilities. This package comes with the .chunk(<size>) method splitting the given array into arrays of the given size.

Wrapping an array using the @supercharge/collections package creates a collection instance. You must end the chain with .all() to retrieve the underlying JavaScript array:

const Collect = require('@supercharge/collections')

Collect([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]).chunk(3).all()  
// [ [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8] ]

Collect([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]).chunk(15).all()  
// [ [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] ]

Enjoy!

Mentioned Resources

Marcus Pöhls

Marcus is a fullstack JS developer. He’s passionate about the hapi framework for Node.js and loves to build web apps and APIs. Creator of Futureflix and the “learn hapi” learning path.

Explore the Library

Find interesting tutorials and solutions for your problems.

Android

Node.js

Server

Miscellaneous