JavaScript Arrays: some and every Methods

JavaScript's some and every methods inspect the elements of an array to determine whether some or all of their values match criteria you specify. A callback function is passed as the first argument for both of these methods. Each element of the array is passed in turn to the callback function and evaluated according to the criteria established there. The callback function accepts three arguments: the current array element, its index, and the array itself.

The some and every methods return true or false to indicate whether some or all of the elements in the array they are invoked on meet the criteria established in the callback function.

The every Method

First we will demonstrate the every method. We want to determine whether all of the values in our example arrays are numeric. We pass a callback function which returns true if the element passed to it contains a numeric value.[1] We invoke the every method on two example arrays; one contains some non-numeric values while the second consists only of numbers:

// example array with some non-numeric values
let ar = [2, 27, 33.45, true, 'yes', 0, 3.14];

// pass function that checks if value is number
console.log(ar.every( function(el, i, ar ) {return typeof el === 'number';}));
// returns false

// example array with numbers only
let ar2 = [1, 2, 3, 4.4];

// same function, using arrow function syntax
console.log( ar2.every( el => typeof el === 'number' ) ); // true

When we invoke the every method on the first example array, it returns false since it contains some non-numeric values. When we invoke the every method on the second array, it returns true since it contains only numeric values.

As soon as one of the elements does not match the criteria, the every method stops inspecting elements and returns false.

The some Method

Below we demonstrate using the some method to check whether any of the elements in our example arrays contain non-numeric values. We pass a callback function that returns true if the element passed to it contains a value that is not a number. We invoke the some method on two example arrays; one contains some non-numeric values while the second consists only of numbers:

// example array with some non-numeric values
let ar = [2, 27, 33.45, true, 'yes', 0, 3.14];

// pass function that checks if value is non-numeric
console.log( ar.some( function(el) { return typeof el != 'number'; } ) );
// returns true

// example array with numbers only
let ar2 = [1, 2, 3, 4.4];

// same function, using arrow function syntax
console.log( ar2.some( el => typeof el != 'number' ) ); // false

The some method returns true as soon as any element satisfies the criteria established by the callback function. If none of the elements match the criteria, the method returns false.

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