How to Get The First Items of an Array With JavaScript

How do you access the first X number of elements in a JavaScript array? You use JavaScript’s built-in slice() method.

As an example, let’s say you need to manipulate the first 3 items of an array. In this case the array is a list of exercises:

const exerciseList = [
  "Deadlift",
  "Squat",
  "Push-up",
  "Pull-up",
  "Turkish Get-up",
  "Kettlebell Swing",
]

First we define the number of items we want to access:

// get the first 3 items
const numberOfItems = 3

Then we declare a new variable to contain a reference to the first 3 items:

const firstThreeExercises = exerciseList.slice(0, numberOfItems)

Try to print the value of exerciseList and firstThreeExercises using console.log():

console.log(exerciseList)
// Output: ["Deadlift", "Squat", "Push-up", "Pull-up", "Turkish Get-up", "Kettlebell Swing"]

console.log(firstThreeExercises)
// Output ["Deadlift", "Squat", "Push-up"]

Note: the original exerciseList array is not modified with this approach.