Question

In Javascript, arrays should have methods pop and shift.

However, JQuery objects seem to be missing these methods:

$('div').shift(); // Error, shift is undefined
$('div').pop(); // Error, pop is undefined
$('div').splice(); // Splice is OK actually

I wonder why these functions are missing – after all, the jquery object is just an array.

What’s the easiest way of performing pop and shift functions on jquery objects?

Answer 1

They’re missing because a jQuery object isn’t an Array.

(function( $ ) {
    $.fn.pop = function() {
        var top = this.get(-1);
        this.splice(this.length-1,1);
        return top;
    };

    $.fn.shift = function() {
        var bottom = this.get(0);
        this.splice(0,1);
        return bottom;
    };
})( jQuery );

EDIT: .slice() doesn’t modify the original object. Fixed to use .splice() instead.