Question

I have came up with this simple snippet.

var a:Array = new Array( 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8);
var b:Array = new Array( 6,7,8 ) //<<<These items need to be removed from a 

public function removeItemsFromAThatAreListedInB(a:Array, b:Array )
{
    for ( var i=0 ; i< a.length ;i++)
    {

        for ( var j=0 ; j< b.length ; j++)
        {
            if ( (a[i]) == (b[j])  )
            {
                a.splice(i,1) 
            }

        }

    }


}

Just wanna make sure, if someone has a better “optimized” and “speedier” way to do the same ?

Answer 1

Most of these answers look to be for JavaScript. Since the pasted code looks to be AS3 I think you may want something like this.

Try using Array.indexOf instead of a second loop

public function removeItemsFromAThatAreListedInB(a:Array, b:Array){
    for(var i:int = 0 ; i < b.length ; b++){ 
         var index:int = a.indexOf(b[i]); //returns -1 if the element is not found.
                                         //this method uses the strict equality to compare
         if(index != -1){         
            a.splice(index, 1); //remove the element from a
        }
    }

} 

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/Array.html#indexOf%28%29