How the get the last element in an array items using JavaScript

Question

I have a list of array items like this:

const items = [
  { a: 1 },
  { b: 2 },
  { c: 3 },
]

How can I return / log the last element: { c: 3 }

Here's what I've tried so far:

let newarray = items.map((item) => {
    console.log(item);
})

console.log(newarray);

Answer 1

Update 2021

You can use the Array.at() method, which was moved to Stage 4 in Aug, 2021

['a','b','c'].at(-1) // 'c'

Further Reading

• Docs

  • MDN - Array.prototype.at()
  • Proposal - Relative Indexing Method
  • tc39 spec - Array.at
  • CanIUse - JavaScript built-in: Array: at

• Stack Overflow

  • Get the last item in an array
  • Selecting last element in JavaScript array
  • Destructuring to get the last element of an array in es6

Answer 2

just log the length minus 1, nothing to do with es6:

console.log(items[items.length - 1])

Answer 3

If your list has 3 items, the length is 3 but the last item index is 2, since arrays start at 0, so simply do this:

console.log(items[items.length - 1]);

Doc: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array

Answer 4

I want to let you try something different:

console.log(items.slice(-1));

Answer 5

try this

console.log(items[items.length - 1]);

Answer 6

It's not required to use ES6 to perform the operation you're asking about. You could use either of the following:

/**
 * The last value in the array, `3`, is at the '2' index in the array.
 * To retrieve this value, get the length of the array, '3', and 
 * subtract 1. 
 */
const items = [1, 2, 3];
const lastItemInArray = items[items.length - 1] // => 3

or:

/**
 * Make a copy of the array by calling `slice` (to ensure we don't mutate
 * the original array) and call `pop` on the new array to return the last  
 * value from the new array.
 */
const items = [1, 2, 3];
const lastItemInArray = items.slice().pop(); // => 3

However, if you are dead set on using ES6 to retrieve this value we can leverage the spread operator (which is an ES6 feature) to retrieve the value:

/**
 * Create new array with all values in `items` array. Call `pop` on this 
 * new array to return the last value from the new array.
 *
 * NOTE: if you're using ES6 it might be a good idea to run the code
 * through Babel or some other JavaScript transpiler if you need to
 * support older browsers (IE does not support the spread operator).
 */
const items = [1, 2, 3];
const lastItemInArray = [...items].pop(); // => 3

Answer 7

Update - October 2021 (Chrome 97+)

Proposal for Array.prototype.findLast and Array.prototype.findLastIndex is now on Stage 3!

You can use it like this:

const items = [
  { a: 1 },
  { b: 2 },
  { c: 3 },
];

const last_element = items.findLast((item) => true);
console.log(last_element);