Remove the First Element From Array in JavaScript

To remove the first element from an array in JavaScript we can use the Array shift() method.

var colors = ["Red", "Green", "Blue", "Orange","Yellow"];
colors.shift();

Let’s take a look at a simple example below.

Let’s say we have a simple array of colors and we want to remove the first color from the array. To do this we simply need to use the Array shift() method.

var colors = ["red","blue","green","yellow","orange","purple","pink","black"];
colors.shift();

In this example, the resulting array “colors” would now contain the following:

Let’s take a look at an example using HTML.

Removing the First Element From an Array in JavaScript Using a Click

In this example, we will have a large array of CSS color names that are supported by most browsers. We will set up some HTML to let the user see all the colors contained in the array. We will then have a button that will remove the first color from the array.

Here is the HTML set up:

<style>#colorDiv span { margin-right: 10px; display: inline-block; }</style>
<div id="colorDiv"></div>
<div id="div1">
  <div id="click-me" onclick="removeColor()">Remove first color</div>
  <div id="results"></div>
</div>

In the JavaScript portion of this example, we will first create the HTML span elements that will each contain their own color. We will do this by iterating over the cssColors array using a for loop. The cssColors array will contain 140+ String color names. We will add the colors to div “#colorDiv” using the appendChild() method.

When will add an onclick event that will run the function to create the HTML, and then also remove the first element of the array using the shift() method. We will then clear the HTML div containing our colors by changing the innerHTML to nothing, and remake it using the new array.

Here is the JavaScript code:

var cssColors = ["AliceBlue","AntiqueWhite","Aqua","Aquamarine","Azure","Beige","Bisque","Black","BlanchedAlmond","Blue","BlueViolet","Brown","BurlyWood","CadetBlue","Chartreuse","Chocolate","Coral","CornflowerBlue","Cornsilk","Crimson","Cyan","DarkBlue","DarkCyan","DarkGoldenRod","DarkGray","DarkGrey","DarkGreen","DarkKhaki","DarkMagenta","DarkOliveGreen","DarkOrange","DarkOrchid","DarkRed","DarkSalmon","DarkSeaGreen","DarkSlateBlue","DarkSlateGray","DarkSlateGrey","DarkTurquoise","DarkViolet","DeepPink","DeepSkyBlue","DimGray","DimGrey","DodgerBlue","FireBrick","FloralWhite","ForestGreen","Fuchsia","Gainsboro","GhostWhite","Gold","GoldenRod","Gray","Grey","Green","GreenYellow","HoneyDew","HotPink","IndianRed","Indigo","Ivory","Khaki","Lavender","LavenderBlush","LawnGreen","LemonChiffon","LightBlue","LightCoral","LightCyan","LightGoldenRodYellow","LightGray","LightGrey","LightGreen","LightPink","LightSalmon","LightSeaGreen","LightSkyBlue","LightSlateGray","LightSlateGrey","LightSteelBlue","LightYellow","Lime","LimeGreen","Linen","Magenta","Maroon","MediumAquaMarine","MediumBlue","MediumOrchid","MediumPurple","MediumSeaGreen","MediumSlateBlue","MediumSpringGreen","MediumTurquoise","MediumVioletRed","MidnightBlue","MintCream","MistyRose","Moccasin","NavajoWhite","Navy","OldLace","Olive","OliveDrab","Orange","OrangeRed","Orchid","PaleGoldenRod","PaleGreen","PaleTurquoise","PaleVioletRed","PapayaWhip","PeachPuff","Peru","Pink","Plum","PowderBlue","Purple","RebeccaPurple","Red","RosyBrown","RoyalBlue","SaddleBrown","Salmon","SandyBrown","SeaGreen","SeaShell","Sienna","Silver","SkyBlue","SlateBlue","SlateGray","SlateGrey","Snow","SpringGreen","SteelBlue","Tan","Teal","Thistle","Tomato","Turquoise","Violet","Wheat","White","WhiteSmoke","Yellow","YellowGreen"];

//Populate HTML with colors in cssColors array
for (var i = 0; i < cssColors.length; i++) {
  var newColor = document.createElement('span');
  newColor.textContent = cssColors[i];
  document.getElementById("colorDiv").appendChild(newColor);
}

function removeColor() {
  
  //Remove first color
  cssColors.shift();
  
  //Clear HTML of old colors
  document.getElementById("colorDiv").innerHTML = "";
  
  //Populate HTML with colors in cssColors array after removing the first color
  for (var i = 0; i < cssColors.length; i++) {
    var newColor = document.createElement('span');
    newColor.textContent = cssColors[i];
    document.getElementById("colorDiv").appendChild(newColor);
  }
  
}

The final code and output for this example is below:

Code Output:

Full Code:

<style>#colorDiv span { margin-right: 10px; display: inline-block; }</style>
<div id="colorDiv"></div>
<div id="div1">
  <div id="click-me" onclick="removeColor()">Remove first color</div>
  <div id="results"></div>
</div>

<script>

var cssColors = ["AliceBlue","AntiqueWhite","Aqua","Aquamarine","Azure","Beige","Bisque","Black","BlanchedAlmond","Blue","BlueViolet","Brown","BurlyWood","CadetBlue","Chartreuse","Chocolate","Coral","CornflowerBlue","Cornsilk","Crimson","Cyan","DarkBlue","DarkCyan","DarkGoldenRod","DarkGray","DarkGrey","DarkGreen","DarkKhaki","DarkMagenta","DarkOliveGreen","DarkOrange","DarkOrchid","DarkRed","DarkSalmon","DarkSeaGreen","DarkSlateBlue","DarkSlateGray","DarkSlateGrey","DarkTurquoise","DarkViolet","DeepPink","DeepSkyBlue","DimGray","DimGrey","DodgerBlue","FireBrick","FloralWhite","ForestGreen","Fuchsia","Gainsboro","GhostWhite","Gold","GoldenRod","Gray","Grey","Green","GreenYellow","HoneyDew","HotPink","IndianRed","Indigo","Ivory","Khaki","Lavender","LavenderBlush","LawnGreen","LemonChiffon","LightBlue","LightCoral","LightCyan","LightGoldenRodYellow","LightGray","LightGrey","LightGreen","LightPink","LightSalmon","LightSeaGreen","LightSkyBlue","LightSlateGray","LightSlateGrey","LightSteelBlue","LightYellow","Lime","LimeGreen","Linen","Magenta","Maroon","MediumAquaMarine","MediumBlue","MediumOrchid","MediumPurple","MediumSeaGreen","MediumSlateBlue","MediumSpringGreen","MediumTurquoise","MediumVioletRed","MidnightBlue","MintCream","MistyRose","Moccasin","NavajoWhite","Navy","OldLace","Olive","OliveDrab","Orange","OrangeRed","Orchid","PaleGoldenRod","PaleGreen","PaleTurquoise","PaleVioletRed","PapayaWhip","PeachPuff","Peru","Pink","Plum","PowderBlue","Purple","RebeccaPurple","Red","RosyBrown","RoyalBlue","SaddleBrown","Salmon","SandyBrown","SeaGreen","SeaShell","Sienna","Silver","SkyBlue","SlateBlue","SlateGray","SlateGrey","Snow","SpringGreen","SteelBlue","Tan","Teal","Thistle","Tomato","Turquoise","Violet","Wheat","White","WhiteSmoke","Yellow","YellowGreen"];

for (var i = 0; i < cssColors.length; i++) {
  var newColor = document.createElement('span');
  newColor.textContent = cssColors[i];
  document.getElementById("colorDiv").appendChild(newColor);
}

function removeColor() {
  cssColors.shift();
  document.getElementById("colorDiv").innerHTML = "";
  for (var i = 0; i < cssColors.length; i++) {
    var newColor = document.createElement('span');
    newColor.textContent = cssColors[i];
    document.getElementById("colorDiv").appendChild(newColor);
  }
}

</script>

Hopefully this article has been useful for you to understand how to remove the first element from an array in JavaScript.