HowtoIterateArray.md

How to iterate over an array

ECMAScript code

The fastest way to iterate over an array is:

var i, n, e;
for (i = 0, n = arr.length; i < n; i++) {
    e = arr[i];
    // operate on 'e'
}

Looking up .length in the loop condition (i < arr.length) is a bit slower, and using arr.forEach() is a lot slower.

Native code

The basic approach uses duk_get_length() to get the array length and duk_get_prop_index() to request for array elements:

duk_size_t i, n;

n = duk_get_length(ctx, idx_target);
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    duk_get_prop_index(ctx, idx_target, i);
    /* ... */
    duk_pop(ctx);
}

If you don't check for an array explicitly, the loop will also work for:

• Any object with a .length property (buffer objects, typed array views, etc)
• Plain strings (iterating over codepoints)
• Plain buffers (iterating over bytes)

If this is not desirable, check for the value type using duk_is_array():

duk_size_t i, n;

if (!duk_is_array(ctx, idx_target)) {
    /* not an array */
    return;
}

n = duk_get_length(ctx, idx_target);
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    duk_get_prop_index(ctx, idx_target, i);
    /* ... */
    duk_pop(ctx);
}

If you need to handle missing elements specifically (rather than just treating them like an undefined value):

duk_size_t i, n;

n = duk_get_length(ctx, idx_target);
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
    if (duk_get_prop_index(ctx, idx_target, i)) {
        /* element is present */
    } else {
        /* element is not present */
    }
    duk_pop(ctx);
}