Slice don’t Splice

Posted by jordan_terry on July 06, 2020 · 1 min read

I had an array of data that I wanted to create a sub-list of elements starting from and index, i, to a range. You can do this by calling array.slice:

“Extracts a section of the array and returns the new array”

https://www.tutorialsteacher.com/typescript/typescript-array

Typescript, or the underlying Javascript also has a function that adds or removes elements from an array. This is called array.splice:

Adds or removes elements from the array

https://www.tutorialsteacher.com/typescript/typescript-array

I suppose I don’t need to go into detail about what caused me to write this blog post, but I have some lessons:

  • Pay close detail to the functions you are writing or selecting from autocomplete.
  • Test every single piece of code you change, even if you think you are making a small change
  • Unit testing isn’t always enough to catch issues, especially when your unit is manipulating data being passed into it

I’d also like to call out the concept of immutability. This would have saved a stupid developer from a stupid mistake.