Three main options:

  1. for (var i = 0; i < xs.length; i++) { console.log(xs[i]); }
  2. xs.forEach((x, i) => console.log(x));
  3. for (const x of xs) { console.log(x); }

Detailed examples are below.


1. Sequential for loop:

var myStringArray = ["Hello","World"];
var arrayLength = myStringArray.length;
for (var i = 0; i < arrayLength; i++) {
    console.log(myStringArray[i]);
    //Do something
}

Pros

  • Works on every environment
  • You can use break and continue flow control statements

Cons

  • Too verbose
  • Imperative
  • Easy to have off-by-one errors (sometimes also called a fence post error)

2. Array.prototype.forEach:

The ES5 specification introduced a lot of beneficial array methods. One of them, the Array.prototype.forEach, gave us a concise way to iterate over an array:

const array = ["one", "two", "three"]
array.forEach(function (item, index) {
  console.log(item, index);
});

Being almost ten years as the time of writing that the ES5 specification was released (Dec. 2009), it has been implemented by nearly all modern engines in the desktop, server, and mobile environments, so it's safe to use them.

And with the ES6 arrow function syntax, it's even more succinct:

array.forEach(item => console.log(item));

Arrow functions are also widely implemented unless you plan to support ancient platforms (e.g., Internet Explorer 11); you are also safe to go.

Pros

  • Very short and succinct.
  • Declarative

Cons

  • Cannot use break / continue

Normally, you can replace the need to break out of imperative loops by filtering the array elements before iterating them, for example:

array.filter(item => item.condition < 10)
     .forEach(item => console.log(item))

Keep in mind if you are iterating an array to build another array from it, you should use map. I've seen this anti-pattern so many times.

Anti-pattern:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5], doubled = [];

numbers.forEach((n, i) => { doubled[i] = n * 2 });

Proper use case of map:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
const doubled = numbers.map(n => n * 2);

console.log(doubled);

Also, if you are trying to reduce the array to a value, for example, you want to sum an array of numbers, you should use the reduce method.

Anti-pattern:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
const sum = 0;
numbers.forEach(num => { sum += num });

Proper use of reduce:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
const sum = numbers.reduce((total, n) => total + n, 0);

console.log(sum);

3. ES6 for-of statement:

The ES6 standard introduces the concept of iterable objects and defines a new construct for traversing data, the for...of statement.

This statement works for any kind of iterable object and also for generators (any object that has a \[Symbol.iterator\] property).

Array objects are by definition built-in iterables in ES6, so you can use this statement on them:

let colors = ['red', 'green', 'blue'];
for (const color of colors){
    console.log(color);
}

Pros

  • It can iterate over a large variety of objects.
  • Can use normal flow control statements (break / continue).
  • Useful to iterate serially asynchronous values.

Cons

  • If you are targeting older browsers, the transpiled output might surprise you.

Do not use for...in

@zipcodeman suggests the use of the for...in statement, but for iterating arrays for-in should be avoided, that statement is meant to enumerate object properties.

It shouldn't be used for array-like objects because:

  • The order of iteration is not guaranteed; the array indexes may not be visited in numeric order.
  • Inherited properties are also enumerated.

The second point is that it can give you a lot of problems, for example, if you extend the Array.prototype object to include a method there, that property will also be enumerated.

For example:

Array.prototype.foo = "foo!";
var array = ['a', 'b', 'c'];

for (var i in array) {
    console.log(array[i]);
}

The above code will console log "a", "b", "c", and "foo!".

That can be particularly a problem if you use some library that relies heavily on native prototypes augmentation (such as MooTools).

The for-in statement, as I said before, is there to enumerate object properties, for example:

var obj = {
    "a": 1,
    "b": 2,
    "c": 3
};

for (var prop in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
        // or if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj,prop)) for safety...
        console.log("prop: " + prop + " value: " + obj[prop])
    }
}

In the above example, the hasOwnProperty method allows you to enumerate only own properties. That's it, only the properties that the object physically has, no inherited properties.

I would recommend you to read the following article:

  • Enumeration VS Iteration
Answer from Christian C. Salvadó on Stack Overflow
Top answer
1 of 16
5292

Three main options:

  1. for (var i = 0; i < xs.length; i++) { console.log(xs[i]); }
  2. xs.forEach((x, i) => console.log(x));
  3. for (const x of xs) { console.log(x); }

Detailed examples are below.


1. Sequential for loop:

var myStringArray = ["Hello","World"];
var arrayLength = myStringArray.length;
for (var i = 0; i < arrayLength; i++) {
    console.log(myStringArray[i]);
    //Do something
}

Pros

  • Works on every environment
  • You can use break and continue flow control statements

Cons

  • Too verbose
  • Imperative
  • Easy to have off-by-one errors (sometimes also called a fence post error)

2. Array.prototype.forEach:

The ES5 specification introduced a lot of beneficial array methods. One of them, the Array.prototype.forEach, gave us a concise way to iterate over an array:

const array = ["one", "two", "three"]
array.forEach(function (item, index) {
  console.log(item, index);
});

Being almost ten years as the time of writing that the ES5 specification was released (Dec. 2009), it has been implemented by nearly all modern engines in the desktop, server, and mobile environments, so it's safe to use them.

And with the ES6 arrow function syntax, it's even more succinct:

array.forEach(item => console.log(item));

Arrow functions are also widely implemented unless you plan to support ancient platforms (e.g., Internet Explorer 11); you are also safe to go.

Pros

  • Very short and succinct.
  • Declarative

Cons

  • Cannot use break / continue

Normally, you can replace the need to break out of imperative loops by filtering the array elements before iterating them, for example:

array.filter(item => item.condition < 10)
     .forEach(item => console.log(item))

Keep in mind if you are iterating an array to build another array from it, you should use map. I've seen this anti-pattern so many times.

Anti-pattern:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5], doubled = [];

numbers.forEach((n, i) => { doubled[i] = n * 2 });

Proper use case of map:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
const doubled = numbers.map(n => n * 2);

console.log(doubled);

Also, if you are trying to reduce the array to a value, for example, you want to sum an array of numbers, you should use the reduce method.

Anti-pattern:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
const sum = 0;
numbers.forEach(num => { sum += num });

Proper use of reduce:

const numbers = [1,2,3,4,5];
const sum = numbers.reduce((total, n) => total + n, 0);

console.log(sum);

3. ES6 for-of statement:

The ES6 standard introduces the concept of iterable objects and defines a new construct for traversing data, the for...of statement.

This statement works for any kind of iterable object and also for generators (any object that has a \[Symbol.iterator\] property).

Array objects are by definition built-in iterables in ES6, so you can use this statement on them:

let colors = ['red', 'green', 'blue'];
for (const color of colors){
    console.log(color);
}

Pros

  • It can iterate over a large variety of objects.
  • Can use normal flow control statements (break / continue).
  • Useful to iterate serially asynchronous values.

Cons

  • If you are targeting older browsers, the transpiled output might surprise you.

Do not use for...in

@zipcodeman suggests the use of the for...in statement, but for iterating arrays for-in should be avoided, that statement is meant to enumerate object properties.

It shouldn't be used for array-like objects because:

  • The order of iteration is not guaranteed; the array indexes may not be visited in numeric order.
  • Inherited properties are also enumerated.

The second point is that it can give you a lot of problems, for example, if you extend the Array.prototype object to include a method there, that property will also be enumerated.

For example:

Array.prototype.foo = "foo!";
var array = ['a', 'b', 'c'];

for (var i in array) {
    console.log(array[i]);
}

The above code will console log "a", "b", "c", and "foo!".

That can be particularly a problem if you use some library that relies heavily on native prototypes augmentation (such as MooTools).

The for-in statement, as I said before, is there to enumerate object properties, for example:

var obj = {
    "a": 1,
    "b": 2,
    "c": 3
};

for (var prop in obj) {
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(prop)) {
        // or if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj,prop)) for safety...
        console.log("prop: " + prop + " value: " + obj[prop])
    }
}

In the above example, the hasOwnProperty method allows you to enumerate only own properties. That's it, only the properties that the object physically has, no inherited properties.

I would recommend you to read the following article:

  • Enumeration VS Iteration
2 of 16
1210

Yes, assuming your implementation includes the for...of feature introduced in ECMAScript 2015 (the "Harmony" release)... which is a pretty safe assumption these days.

It works like this:

// REQUIRES ECMASCRIPT 2015+
var s, myStringArray = ["Hello", "World"];
for (s of myStringArray) {
  // ... do something with s ...
}

Or better yet, since ECMAScript 2015 also provides block-scoped variables:

// REQUIRES ECMASCRIPT 2015+
const myStringArray = ["Hello", "World"];
for (const s of myStringArray) {
  // ... do something with s ...
}
// s is no longer defined here

(The variable s is different on each iteration, but can still be declared const inside the loop body as long as it isn't modified there.)

A note on sparse arrays: an array in JavaScript may not actually store as many items as reported by its length; that number is simply one greater than the highest index at which a value is stored. If the array holds fewer elements than indicated by its length, its said to be sparse. For example, it's perfectly legitimate to have an array with items only at indexes 3, 12, and 247; the length of such an array is 248, though it is only actually storing 3 values. If you try to access an item at any other index, the array will appear to have the undefined value there, but the array is nonetheless is distinct from one that actually has undefined values stored. You can see this difference in a number of ways, for example in the way the Node REPL displays arrays:

> a              // array with only one item, at index 12
[ <12 empty items>, 1 ]
> a[0]           // appears to have undefined at index 0
undefined
> a[0]=undefined // but if we put an actual undefined there
undefined
> a              // it now looks like this
[ undefined, <11 empty items>, 1 ]

So when you want to "loop through" an array, you have a question to answer: do you want to loop over the full range indicated by its length and process undefineds for any missing elements, or do you only want to process the elements actually present? There are plenty of applications for both approaches; it just depends on what you're using the array for.

If you iterate over an array with for..of, the body of the loop is executed length times, and the loop control variable is set to undefined for any items not actually present in the array. Depending on the details of your "do something with" code, that behavior may be what you want, but if not, you should use a different approach.

Of course, some developers have no choice but to use a different approach anyway, because for whatever reason they're targeting a version of JavaScript that doesn't yet support for...of.

As long as your JavaScript implementation is compliant with the previous edition of the ECMAScript specification (which rules out, for example, versions of Internet Explorer before 9), then you can use the Array#forEach iterator method instead of a loop. In that case, you pass a function to be called on each item in the array:

var myStringArray = [ "Hello", "World" ];
myStringArray.forEach( function(s) { 
     // ... do something with s ...
} );

You can of course use an arrow function if your implementation supports ES6+:

myStringArray.forEach( s => { 
     // ... do something with s ...
} );

Unlike for...of, .forEach only calls the function for elements that are actually present in the array. If passed our hypothetical array with three elements and a length of 248, it will only call the function three times, not 248 times. If this is how you want to handle sparse arrays, .forEach may be the way to go even if your interpreter supports for...of.

The final option, which works in all versions of JavaScript, is an explicit counting loop. You simply count from 0 up to one less than the length and use the counter as an index. The basic loop looks like this:

var i, s, myStringArray = [ "Hello", "World" ], len = myStringArray.length;
for (i=0; i<len; ++i) {
  s = myStringArray[i];
  // ... do something with s ...
}

One advantage of this approach is that you can choose how to handle sparse arrays. The above code will run the body of the loop the full length times, with s set to undefined for any missing elements, just like for..of; if you instead want to handle only the actually-present elements of a sparse array, like .forEach, you can add a simple in test on the index:

var i, s, myStringArray = [ "Hello", "World" ], len = myStringArray.length;
for (i=0; i<len; ++i) {
  if (i in myStringArray) {
    s = myStringArray[i];
    // ... do something with s ...
  }
}

Depending on your implementation's optimizations, assigning the length value to the local variable (as opposed to including the full myStringArray.length expression in the loop condition) can make a significant difference in performance since it skips a property lookup each time through. You may see the length caching done in the loop initialization clause, like this:

var i, len, myStringArray = [ "Hello", "World" ];
for (len = myStringArray.length, i=0; i<len; ++i) {

The explicit counting loop also means you have access to the index of each value, should you want it. The index is also passed as an extra parameter to the function you pass to forEach, so you can access it that way as well:

myStringArray.forEach( (s,i) => {
   // ... do something with s and i ...
});

for...of doesn't give you the index associated with each object, but as long as the object you're iterating over is actually an instance of Array (and not one of the other iterable types for..of works on), you can use the Array#entries method to change it to an array of [index, item] pairs, and then iterate over that:

for (const [i, s] of myStringArray.entries()) {
  // ... do something with s and i ...
}

The for...in syntax mentioned by others is for looping over an object's properties; since an Array in JavaScript is just an object with numeric property names (and an automatically-updated length property), you can theoretically loop over an Array with it. But the problem is that it doesn't restrict itself to the numeric property values (remember that even methods are actually just properties whose value is a closure), nor is it guaranteed to iterate over those in numeric order. Therefore, the for...in syntax should not be used for looping through Arrays.

🌐
Mozilla Hacks
hacks.mozilla.org › home › articles › es6 in depth: iterators and the for-of loop
ES6 In Depth: Iterators and the for-of loop – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog
May 13, 2015 - Ken: In ES6, Arrays have an .entries() method that’s like enumerate(). It returns an iterator that produces [index, value] pairs.
🌐
W3Schools
w3schools.com › js › js_array_iteration.asp
JavaScript Array Iteration
Any iterable object · Any object with a length property · Create an Array from a String: let text = "ABCDEFG"; Array.from(text); Try it Yourself » · Array.from() has an optional parameter which allows you to execute a function on each element of the new array: Create an Array from an Array: const myNumbers = [1,2,3,4]; const myArr = Array.from(myNumbers, (x) => x * 2); Try it Yourself » · from() is an ES6 feature.
🌐
Go Make Things
gomakethings.com › looping-through-arrays-the-es6-way
Looping through arrays the ES6 way | Go Make Things
July 27, 2017 - The traditional way of looping through arrays in vanilla JavaScript is with a for loop: var sandwiches = [ 'tuna', 'ham', 'turkey', 'pb&j' ]; for (var i = 0; i
🌐
freeCodeCamp
freecodecamp.org › news › how-to-loop-through-an-array-in-javascript-js-iterate-tutorial
How to Loop Through an Array in JavaScript – JS Iterate Tutorial
November 7, 2024 - We don't need to initialize the index first when using the for loop method because the initialization, condition, and iteration are all handled in the bracket, as shown below: for (let i = 0; i < scores.length; i++) { console.log(scores[i]); } This will return all the elements as other methods have done: ... The for…in loop is an easier way to loop through arrays as it gives us the key which we can now use to get the values from our array this way:
🌐
Exploring JS
exploringjs.com › es6 › ch_for-of.html
17. The for-of loop
for-of is a new loop in ES6 that replaces both for-in and forEach() and supports the new iteration protocol. Use it to loop over iterable objects (Arrays, strings, Maps, Sets, etc.; see Chap.
🌐
MDN Web Docs
developer.mozilla.org › en-US › docs › Web › JavaScript › Reference › Statements › for...of
for...of - JavaScript | MDN - MDN Web Docs
The for...of statement executes a loop that operates on a sequence of values sourced from an iterable object. Iterable objects include instances of built-ins such as Array, String, TypedArray, Map, Set, NodeList (and other DOM collections), as well as the arguments object, generators produced by generator functions, and user-defined iterables.
Find elsewhere
🌐
MDN Web Docs
developer.mozilla.org › en-US › docs › Web › JavaScript › Reference › Global_Objects › Array › forEach
Array.prototype.forEach() - JavaScript - MDN Web Docs
The forEach() method is an iterative method. It calls a provided callbackFn function once for each element in an array in ascending-index order. Unlike map(), forEach() always returns undefined and is not chainable. The typical use case is to execute side effects at the end of a chain.
🌐
Codez Up
codezup.com › home › ways to loop through javascript arrays | es6
Ways to Loop through Javascript Arrays | ES6 | Codez Up
July 27, 2022 - So, we initialize some variables and then loop till the length of the array and access the array element on each iteration. This loop is pretty standard and you may have seen this loop while working on any project.
🌐
DEV Community
dev.to › misterkevin_js › 11-ways-to-iterate-an-array-javascript-3mjg
11 ways to iterate an array in Javascript - DEV Community
March 11, 2020 - It's really similar to the for-in loop, but the main difference between both loops is the fact that for-of is used exclusively on collection types (Maps, Sets, Arrays, TypedArrays, NodeLists, etc...). It will avoid object properties and can be used with any object that implements the [Symbol.iterator] Symbol too (See advanced usage).
🌐
Reactgo
reactgo.com › javascript-loop-through-array-of-objects
How to loop through array of objects in JavaScript(es6) | Reactgo
June 16, 2023 - let users = [ { id:1, name:"king" ... 2,"john" // third iteration 3,"gowtham" forEach methods takes the callback function as an argument and runs on each object present in the array....
🌐
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › javascript › es6-array-foreach-method
ES6 | Array forEach() Method - GeeksforGeeks
December 13, 2021 - Same as previous, the first line declares and initialize a numbers array called array_1 with values [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Then on array_1 forEach method is called which iterates over the array and takes a callback function as an argument.
🌐
Go Make Things
gomakethings.com › es6-foreach-loops-with-vanilla-javascript
ES6 forEach() loops with vanilla JavaScript | Go Make Things
March 8, 2018 - ES6 introduced the Array.forEach() method for looping through arrays. You call this method on your array, and pass in a callback function to run on each iteration of the loop. The callback accepts two arguments.
🌐
DEV Community
dev.to › godcrampy › es6-for-loops-best-practices-4c86
ES6 for loops: Best Practices - DEV Community
August 25, 2019 - The ES6 revision also provides two new for loops the for..of and for..in loop. ... let primes = [2, 3, 5, 7]; for(const value of primes) { console.log(value); } // 2 // 3 // 5 // 7 // Iterates over the values of the array
🌐
TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com › es6 › es6_array_method_foreach.htm
ES6 - Array Method forEach()
var nums = new Array(12,13,14,15) console.log("Printing original array......") nums.forEach(function(val,index) { console.log(val) }) nums.reverse() //reverses the array element console.log("Printing Reversed array....") nums.forEach(function(val,index){ console.log(val) })
🌐
JavaScript in Plain English
javascript.plainenglish.io › demystifying-the-es6-for-of-loop-9c1a0166d1c6
Demystifying the ES6 ‘for-of’ Loop | by Let Me Code! | JavaScript in Plain English
April 25, 2023 - This has been around since the first ES6 edition and allows the programmer to loop through the enumerable properties of a JavaScript ‘iterable.’ · This means that when used for an array, the variable in the for-in loop will return the index, and for an object it will return the key.