shift() Method in JavaScript
•JavaScript•1 min read

javascriptshift methodarray methods
shift() is a built-in method in JavaScript that removes the first element from an array.
shift() Method in JavaScript
shift()is a built-in method in JavaScript that removes the first element from anarray.- It modifies the original array and returns the removed element. The remaining elements in the array are shifted down to fill the empty space.
Example:
- Let's take an array
playlist, with elements like song-1, song-2, song-3, song-4, and song-5.
let playlist = ['song-1', 'song-2', 'song-3', 'song-4', 'song-5'];To show all songs in the playlist, use the forEach() method.
let playlist = ['song-1', 'song-2', 'song-3', 'song-4', 'song-5'];
playlist.forEach(item => {
document.write(item + "<br>");
});
// Output:
song-1
song-2
song-3
song-4
song-5Now, all the songs in the playlist are displayed as song-1, song-2, song-3, song-4, song-5.
- If you want to play and remove the first song from the playlist, use the
shift()method:
let playlist = ['song-1', 'song-2', 'song-3', 'song-4', 'song-5'];
let nowPlaying = playlist.shift();
document.write(`<h3>Now Playing: ${nowPlaying}</h3>`);
playlist.forEach(item => {
document.write(item + "<br>");
});
// Output-1:
Now Playing: song-1
// Output-2:
song-2
song-3
song-4
song-5The first song, song-1, is removed from the playlist array and displayed as Now Playing. The remaining songs are song-2, song-3, song-4, song-5.
- If you want to play another song and remove it from the playlist, use the
shift()method again:
let playlist = ['song-2', 'song-3', 'song-4', 'song-5'];
let nowPlaying = playlist.shift();
document.write(`<h3>Now Playing: ${nowPlaying}</h3>`);
playlist.forEach(item => {
document.write(item + "<br>");
});
// Output-1:
Now Playing: song-2
// Output-2:
song-3
song-4
song-5Now, song-2 is removed from the playlist array and displayed as Now Playing, and the remaining songs are song-3, song-4, song-5.
- Using the
shift()method we remove and play songs one by one from the beginning of the playlist.



