Array.prototype.flatMap()

The flatMap() method of Array instances returns a new array formed by applying a given callback function to each element of the array, and then flattening the result by one level. It is identical to a map() followed by a flat() of depth 1 (arr.map(...args).flat()), but slightly more efficient than calling those two methods separately.

Syntax

flatMap(callbackFn)
flatMap(callbackFn, thisArg)

Parameters

callbackFn
- : A function to execute for each element in the array. It should return an array containing new elements of the new array, or a single non-array value to be added to the new array. The function is called with the following arguments:
  - element
    - : The current element being processed in the array.
  - index
    - : The index of the current element being processed in the array.
  - array
    - : The array flatMap() was called upon.
thisArg
- : A value to use as this when executing callbackFn. See iterative methods.

Return value

A new array with each element being the result of the callback function and flattened by a depth of 1.

Description

The flatMap() method is an iterative method. See Array.prototype.map for a detailed description of the callback function. The flatMap() method is identical to map(callbackFn, thisArg) followed by flat(1) — for each element, it produces an array of new elements, and concatenates the resulting arrays together to form a new array.

The flatMap() method is generic. It only expects the this value to have a length property and integer-keyed properties. However, the value returned from callbackFn must be an array if it is to be flattened.

Alternative

Pre-allocate and explicitly iterate

const arr = [1, 2, 3, 4];

arr.flatMap((x) => [x, x * 2]);
// is equivalent to
const n = arr.length;
const acc = new Array(n * 2);
for (let i = 0; i < n; i++) {
  const x = arr[i];
  acc[i * 2] = x;
  acc[i * 2 + 1] = x * 2;
}
// [1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 6, 4, 8]

Note that in this particular case the flatMap approach is slower than the for-loop approach — due to the creation of temporary arrays that must be garbage collected, as well as the return array not needing to be frequently resized. However, flatMap may still be the correct solution in cases where its flexibility and readability are desired.

Examples

map() and flatMap()

const arr1 = [1, 2, 3, 4];

arr1.map((x) => [x * 2]);
// [[2], [4], [6], [8]]

arr1.flatMap((x) => [x * 2]);
// [2, 4, 6, 8]

// only one level is flattened
arr1.flatMap((x) => <span class="createlink">x &#42; 2</span>);
// [[2], [4], [6], [8]]

While the above could have been achieved by using map itself, here is an example that better showcases the use of flatMap().

Let's generate a list of words from a list of sentences.

const arr1 = ["it's Sunny in", "", "California"];

arr1.map((x) => x.split(" "));
// [["it's","Sunny","in"],[""],["California"]]

arr1.flatMap((x) => x.split(" "));
// ["it's","Sunny","in", "", "California"]

Notice, the output list length can be different from the input list length.

For adding and removing items during a map()

flatMap can be used as a way to add and remove items (modify the number of items) during a map. In other words, it allows you to map many items to many items (by handling each input item separately), rather than always one-to-one. In this sense, it works like the opposite of filter. Return a 1-element array to keep the item, a multiple-element array to add items, or a 0-element array to remove the item.

// Let's say we want to remove all the negative numbers
// and split the odd numbers into an even number and a 1
const a = [5, 4, -3, 20, 17, -33, -4, 18];
//         |\  \  x   |  | \   x   x   |
//        [4,1, 4,   20, 16, 1,       18]

const result = a.flatMap((n) => {
  if (n < 0) {
    return [];
  }
  return n % 2 === 0 ? [n] : [n - 1, 1];
});
console.log(result); // [4, 1, 4, 20, 16, 1, 18]

Using flatMap() on sparse arrays

The callbackFn won't be called for empty slots in the source array because map() doesn't, while flat() ignores empty slots in the returned arrays.

console.log([1, 2, , 4, 5].flatMap((x) => [x, x * 2])); // [1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 5, 10]
console.log([1, 2, 3, 4].flatMap((x) => [, x * 2])); // [2, 4, 6, 8]

Calling flatMap() on non-array objects

The flatMap() method reads the length property of this and then accesses each property whose key is a nonnegative integer less than length. If the return value of the callback function is not an array, it is always directly appended to the result array.

const arrayLike = {
  length: 3,
  0: 1,
  1: 2,
  2: 3,
  3: 4, // ignored by flatMap() since length is 3
};
console.log(Array.prototype.flatMap.call(arrayLike, (x) => [x, x * 2]));
// [1, 2, 2, 4, 3, 6]

// Array-like objects returned from the callback won't be flattened
console.log(
  Array.prototype.flatMap.call(arrayLike, (x) => ({
    length: 1,
    0: x,
  })),
);
// [ { '0': 1, length: 1 }, { '0': 2, length: 1 }, { '0': 3, length: 1 } ]