Converting a Node List to an Array
The querySelectorAll
method returns an array-like object called a node list. These data structures are referred to as “Array-like”, because they appear as an array, but can not be used with array methods like map
and forEach
. Here’s a quick, safe, and reusable way to convert a node list into an array of DOM elements:
const nodelist = document.querySelectorAll('div');
const nodelistToArray = Array.apply(null, nodelist);
//later on ..
nodelistToArray.forEach(...);
nodelistToArray.map(...);
nodelistToArray.slice(...);
//etc...
The apply
method is used to pass an array of arguments to a function with a given this
value. MDN states that apply
will take an array-like object, which is exactly what querySelectorAll
returns. Since we don’t need to specify a value for this
in the context of the function, we pass in null
or 0
. The result is an actual array of DOM elements which contains all of the available array methods.
Alternatively you can use Array.prototype.slice
combined with Function.prototype.call
or Function.prototype.apply
passing the array-like object as the value of this
:
const nodelist = document.querySelectorAll('div');
const nodelistToArray = Array.prototype.slice.call(nodelist); // or equivalently Array.prototype.slice.apply(nodelist);
//later on ..
nodelistToArray.forEach(...);
nodelistToArray.map(...);
nodelistToArray.slice(...);
//etc...
Or if you are using ES2015 you can use the spread operator ...
const nodelist = [...document.querySelectorAll('div')]; // returns a real array
//later on ..
nodelist.forEach(...);
nodelist.map(...);
nodelist.slice(...);
//etc...
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