Javascript equivalent of Python's zip function

Is there a javascript equivalent of Python's zip function? That is, given multiple arrays of equal lengths create an array of pairs.

For instance, if I have three arrays that look like this:

var array1 = [1, 2, 3];
var array2 = ['a','b','c'];
var array3 = [4, 5, 6];

The output array should be:

var output array:[[1,'a',4], [2,'b',5], [3,'c',6]]

2016 update:

Here's a snazzier Ecmascript 6 version:

zip= rows=>rows[0].map((_,c)=>rows.map(row=>row[c]))

Illustration equiv. to Python{zip(*args)}:

> zip([['row0col0', 'row0col1', 'row0col2'],
       ['row1col0', 'row1col1', 'row1col2']]);
[["row0col0","row1col0"],
 ["row0col1","row1col1"],
 ["row0col2","row1col2"]]

(and FizzyTea points out that ES6 has variadic argument syntax, so the following function definition will act like python, but see below for disclaimer... this will not be its own inverse so zip(zip(x)) will not equal x; though as Matt Kramer points out zip(...zip(...x))==x (like in regular python zip(*zip(*x))==x))

Alternative definition equiv. to Python{zip}:

> zip = (...rows) => [...rows[0]].map((_,c) => rows.map(row => row[c]))
> zip( ['row0col0', 'row0col1', 'row0col2'] ,
       ['row1col0', 'row1col1', 'row1col2'] );
             // note zip(row0,row1), not zip(matrix)
same answer as above

(Do note that the ... syntax may have performance issues at this time, and possibly in the future, so if you use the second answer with variadic arguments, you may want to perf test it. That said it's been quite a while since it's been in the standard.)

Make sure to note the addendum if you wish to use this on strings (perhaps there's a better way to do it now with es6 iterables).

---

Here's a oneliner:

function zip(arrays) {
    return arrays[0].map(function(_,i){
        return arrays.map(function(array){return array[i]})
    });
}

// > zip([[1,2],[11,22],[111,222]])
// [[1,11,111],[2,22,222]]]

// If you believe the following is a valid return value:
//   > zip([])
//   []
// then you can special-case it, or just do
//  return arrays.length==0 ? [] : arrays[0].map(...)

---

The above assumes that the arrays are of equal size, as they should be. It also assumes you pass in a single list of lists argument, unlike Python's version where the argument list is variadic. If you want all of these "features", see below. It takes just about 2 extra lines of code.

The following will mimic Python's zip behavior on edge cases where the arrays are not of equal size, silently pretending the longer parts of arrays don't exist:

function zip() {
    var args = [].slice.call(arguments);
    var shortest = args.length==0 ? [] : args.reduce(function(a,b){
        return a.length<b.length ? a : b
    });

    return shortest.map(function(_,i){
        return args.map(function(array){return array[i]})
    });
}

// > zip([1,2],[11,22],[111,222,333])
// [[1,11,111],[2,22,222]]]

// > zip()
// []

This will mimic Python's itertools.zip_longest behavior, inserting undefined where arrays are not defined:

function zip() {
    var args = [].slice.call(arguments);
    var longest = args.reduce(function(a,b){
        return a.length>b.length ? a : b
    }, []);

    return longest.map(function(_,i){
        return args.map(function(array){return array[i]})
    });
}

// > zip([1,2],[11,22],[111,222,333])
// [[1,11,111],[2,22,222],[null,null,333]]

// > zip()
// []

If you use these last two version (variadic aka. multiple-argument versions), then zip is no longer its own inverse. To mimic the zip(*[...]) idiom from Python, you will need to do zip.apply(this, [...]) when you want to invert the zip function or if you want to similarly have a variable number of lists as input.

---

addendum:

To make this handle any iterable (e.g. in Python you can use zip on strings, ranges, map objects, etc.), you could define the following:

function iterView(iterable) {
    // returns an array equivalent to the iterable
}

However if you write zip in the following way, even that won't be necessary:

function zip(arrays) {
    return Array.apply(null,Array(arrays[0].length)).map(function(_,i){
        return arrays.map(function(array){return array[i]})
    });
}

Demo:

> JSON.stringify( zip(['abcde',[1,2,3,4,5]]) )
[["a",1],["b",2],["c",3],["d",4],["e",5]]

(Or you could use a range(...) Python-style function if you've written one already. Eventually you will be able to use ECMAScript array comprehensions or generators.)

Check out the library Underscore.

> Underscore provides over 100 functions that support both your favorite workaday functional helpers: map, filter, invoke — as well as more specialized goodies: function binding, javascript templating, creating quick indexes, deep equality testing, and so on.

– Say the people who made it

I recently started using it specifically for the zip() function and it has left a great first impression. I am using jQuery and CoffeeScript, and it just goes perfectly with them. Underscore picks up right where they leave off and so far it hasn't let me down. Oh by the way, it's only 3kb minified.

Check it out:

_.zip(['moe', 'larry', 'curly'], [30, 40, 50], [true, false, false]);
// returns [["moe", 30, true], ["larry", 40, false], ["curly", 50, false]]

Modern ES6 example with a generator:

function *zip (...iterables){
    let iterators = iterables.map(i => i[Symbol.iterator]() )
    while (true) {
        let results = iterators.map(iter => iter.next() )
        if (results.some(res => res.done) ) return
        else yield results.map(res => res.value )
    }
}

First, we get a list of iterables as iterators. This usually happens transparently, but here we do it explicitly, as we yield step-by-step until one of them is exhausted. We check if any of results (using the .some() method) in the given array is exhausted, and if so, we break the while loop.

In addition to ninjagecko's excellent and comprehensive answer, all it takes to zip two JS-arrays into a "tuple-mimic" is:

//Arrays: aIn, aOut
Array.prototype.map.call( aIn, function(e,i){return [e, aOut[i]];})

Explanation:
Since Javascript doesn't have a tuples type, functions for tuples, lists and sets wasn't a high priority in the language specification.
Otherwise, similar behavior is accessible in a straightforward manner via Array map in JS >1.6. (map is actually often implemented by JS engine makers in many >JS 1.4 engines, despite not specified).
The major difference to Python's zip, izip,... results from map's functional style, since map requires a function-argument. Additionally it is a function of the Array-instance. One may use Array.prototype.map instead, if an extra declaration for the input is an issue.

Example:

_tarrin = [0..constructor, function(){}, false, undefined, '', 100, 123.324,
         2343243243242343242354365476453654625345345, 'sdf23423dsfsdf',
         'sdf2324.234dfs','234,234fsf','100,100','100.100']
_parseInt = function(i){return parseInt(i);}
_tarrout = _tarrin.map(_parseInt)
_tarrin.map(function(e,i,a){return [e, _tarrout[i]]})

Result:

//'('+_tarrin.map(function(e,i,a){return [e, _tarrout[i]]}).join('),\n(')+')'
>>
(function Number() { [native code] },NaN),
(function (){},NaN),
(false,NaN),
(,NaN),
(,NaN),
(100,100),
(123.324,123),
(2.3432432432423434e+42,2),
(sdf23423dsfsdf,NaN),
(sdf2324.234dfs,NaN),
(234,234fsf,234),
(100,100,100),
(100.100,100)

Related Performance:

Using map over for-loops:

See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10293378/what-is-the-most-efficient-way-of-merging-1-2-and-7-8-into-1-7-2-8/17910641#17910641

Note: the base types such as false and undefined do not posess a prototypal object-hierarchy and thus do not expose a toString function. Hence these are shown as empty in the output.
As parseInt's second argument is the base/number radix, to which to convert the number to, and since map passes the index as the second argument to its argument-function, a wrapper function is used.

Along other Python-like functions, pythonic offers a zip function, with the extra benefit of returning a lazy evaluated Iterator, similar to the behaviour of its Python counterpart:

import {zip, zipLongest} from 'pythonic';

const arr1 = ['a', 'b'];
const arr2 = ['c', 'd', 'e'];
for (const [first, second] of zip(arr1, arr2))
    console.log(`first: ${first}, second: ${second}`);
// first: a, second: c
// first: b, second: d

for (const [first, second] of zipLongest(arr1, arr2))
    console.log(`first: ${first}, second: ${second}`);
// first: a, second: c
// first: b, second: d
// first: undefined, second: e

// unzip
const [arrayFirst, arraySecond] = [...zip(...zip(arr1, arr2))];

Disclosure I'm author and maintainer of Pythonic

Python has two function to zip sequences: zip and itertools.zip_longest. An implementation in Javascript for the same functionality is this:

Implementation of Python`s zip on JS/ES6

const zip = (...arrays) => {
    const length = Math.min(...arrays.map(arr => arr.length));
    return Array.from({ length }, (value, index) => arrays.map((array => array[index])));
};

Results in:

console.log(zip(
    [1, 2, 3, 'a'],
    [667, false, -378, '337'],
    [111],
    [11, 221]
));

> [ [ 1, 667, 111, 11 ] ]

console.log(zip(
    [1, 2, 3, 'a'],
    [667, false, -378, '337'],
    [111, 212, 323, 433, '1111']
));

> [ [ 1, 667, 111 ], [ 2, false, 212 ], [ 3, -378, 323 ], [ 'a', > '337', 433 ] ]

console.log(zip(
    [1, 2, 3, 'a'],
    [667, false, -378, '337'],
    [111],
    []
));

> []

Implementation of Python`s zip_longest on JS/ES6

(https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/itertools.html?highlight=zip_longest#itertools.zip_longest)

const zipLongest = (placeholder = undefined, ...arrays) => {
    const length = Math.max(...arrays.map(arr => arr.length));
    return Array.from(
        { length }, (value, index) => arrays.map(
            array => array.length - 1 >= index ? array[index] : placeholder
        )
    );
};

Results:

console.log(zipLongest(
    undefined,
    [1, 2, 3, 'a'],
    [667, false, -378, '337'],
    [111],
    []
));

> [ [ 1, 667, 111, undefined ], [ 2, false, undefined, undefined ],
> [ 3, -378, undefined, undefined ], [ 'a', '337', undefined, > undefined ] ]

console.log(zipLongest(
    null,
    [1, 2, 3, 'a'],
    [667, false, -378, '337'],
    [111],
    []
));

> [ [ 1, 667, 111, null ], [ 2, false, null, null ], [ 3, -378, > null, null ], [ 'a', '337', null, null ] ]

console.log(zipLongest(
    'Is None',
    [1, 2, 3, 'a'],
    [667, false, -378, '337'],
    [111],
    []
));

> [ [ 1, 667, 111, 'Is None' ], [ 2, false, 'Is None', 'Is None' ],
> [ 3, -378, 'Is None', 'Is None' ], [ 'a', '337', 'Is None', 'Is > None' ] ]

You can make utility function by using ES6.

console.json = obj => console.log(JSON.stringify(obj));

const zip = (arr, ...arrs) =>
  arr.map((val, i) => arrs.reduce((a, arr) => [...a, arr[i]], [val]));

// Example

const array1 = [1, 2, 3];
const array2 = ['a','b','c'];
const array3 = [4, 5, 6];

console.json(zip(array1, array2));         // [[1,"a"],[2,"b"],[3,"c"]]
console.json(zip(array1, array2, array3)); // [[1,"a",4],[2,"b",5],[3,"c",6]]

However, in above solution length of the first array defines the length of the output array.

Here is the solution in which you have more control over it. It's bit complex but worth it.

function _zip(func, args) {
  const iterators = args.map(arr => arr[Symbol.iterator]());
  let iterateInstances = iterators.map((i) => i.next());
  ret = []
  while(iterateInstances[func](it => !it.done)) {
    ret.push(iterateInstances.map(it => it.value));
    iterateInstances = iterators.map((i) => i.next());
  }
  return ret;
}
const array1 = [1, 2, 3];
const array2 = ['a','b','c'];
const array3 = [4, 5, 6];

const zipShort = (...args) => _zip('every', args);

const zipLong = (...args) => _zip('some', args);

console.log(zipShort(array1, array2, array3)) // [[1, 'a', 4], [2, 'b', 5], [3, 'c', 6]]
console.log(zipLong([1,2,3], [4,5,6, 7]))
// [
//  [ 1, 4 ],
//  [ 2, 5 ],
//  [ 3, 6 ],
//  [ undefined, 7 ]]

Not built-in to Javascript itself. Some of the common Javascript frameworks (such as Prototype) provide an implementation, or you can write your own.

1. Npm Module: zip-array

I found an npm module that can be used as a javascript version of python zip:

zip-array - A javascript equivalent of Python's zip function. Merges together the values of each of the arrays.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/zip-array

2. tf.data.zip() in Tensorflow.js

Another alternate choice is for Tensorflow.js users: if you need a zip function in python to work with tensorflow datasets in Javascript, you can use tf.data.zip() in Tensorflow.js.

tf.data.zip() in Tensorflow.js documented at here

Like @Brandon, I recommend Underscore's zip function. However, it acts like zip_longest, appending undefined values as needed to return something the length of the longest input.

I used the mixin method to extend underscore with a zipShortest, which acts like Python's zip, based off of the library's own source for zip.

You can add the following to your common JS code and then call it as if it were part of underscore: _.zipShortest([1,2,3], ['a']) returns [[1, 'a']], for example.

// Underscore library addition - zip like python does, dominated by the shortest list
//  The default injects undefineds to match the length of the longest list.
_.mixin({
    zipShortest : function() {
        var args = Array.Prototype.slice.call(arguments);
        var length = _.min(_.pluck(args, 'length')); // changed max to min
        var results = new Array(length);
        for (var i = 0; i < length; i++) {
            results[i] = _.pluck(args, "" + i);
        }
        return results;
}});

A variation of the lazy generator solution:

function* iter(it) {
    yield* it;
}

function* zip(...its) {
    its = its.map(iter);
    while (true) {
        let rs = its.map(it => it.next());
        if (rs.some(r => r.done))
            return;
        yield rs.map(r => r.value);
    }
}

for (let r of zip([1,2,3], [4,5,6,7], [8,9,0,11,22]))
    console.log(r.join())

// the only change for "longest" is some -> every

function* zipLongest(...its) {
    its = its.map(iter);
    while (true) {
        let rs = its.map(it => it.next());
        if (rs.every(r => r.done))
            return;
        yield rs.map(r => r.value);
    }
}

for (let r of zipLongest([1,2,3], [4,5,6,7], [8,9,0,11,22]))
    console.log(r.join())

And this is the python's classic "n-group" idiom zip(*[iter(a)]*n):

triples = [...zip(...Array(3).fill(iter(a)))]

You could reduce the array of arrays and map new array by taking the result of the index of the inner array.

var array1 = [1, 2, 3], array2 = ['a','b','c'], array3 = [4, 5, 6], array = [array1, array2, array3], transposed = array.reduce((r, a) => a.map((v, i) => (r[i] || []).concat(v)), []);

console.log(transposed);

Fun with spread.

const transpose = (r, a) => a.map((v, i) => [...(r[i] || []), v]), array1 = [1, 2, 3], array2 = ['a','b','c'], array3 = [4, 5, 6], transposed = [array1, array2, array3].reduce(transpose, []);

console.log(transposed);

ES2020 shortest variant:

function * zip(arr1, arr2, i = 0) {
  while(arr1[i] || arr2[i]) yield [arr1[i], arr2[i++]].filter(x => !!x);
}
    
[ ...zip(arr1, arr2) ]  // result

Original answer (see update below)

I modified flm's nifty answer to take an arbitrary number of arrays:

 function* zip(arrays, i = 0) {
  while (i<Math.min(...arrays.map(({length})=>length))) {
    yield arrays.map((arr, j) => arr[j < arrays.length - 1 ? i : i++])
  }
 }

Updated answer

As pointed out by Tom Pohl this function can't deal with arrays with falsy values in. Here is an updated/improved version that can deal with any types and also unequal length arrays:

 function* zip(arrays, i = 0) {
      while (i<Math.min(...arrays.map(arr=>arr.length))) {
        yield arrays.map((arr, j) => arr[j < arrays.length - 1 ? i : i++])
      }
     }
     
   const arr1 = [false,0,1,2]
const arr2 = [100,null,99,98,97]
const arr3 = [7,8,undefined,"monkey","banana"]

console.log(...zip([arr1,arr2,arr3]))

I took a run at this in pure JS wondering how the plugins posted above got the job done. Here's my result. I'll preface this by saying that I have no idea how stable this will be in IE and the like. It's just a quick mockup.

init();

function init() {
    var one = [0, 1, 2, 3];
    var two = [4, 5, 6, 7];
    var three = [8, 9, 10, 11, 12];
    var four = zip(one, two, one);
    //returns array
    //four = zip(one, two, three);
    //returns false since three.length !== two.length
    console.log(four);
}

function zip() {
    for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length; i++) {
        if (!arguments[i].length || !arguments.toString()) {
            return false;
        }
        if (i >= 1) {
            if (arguments[i].length !== arguments[i - 1].length) {
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
    var zipped = [];
    for (var j = 0; j < arguments[0].length; j++) {
        var toBeZipped = [];
        for (var k = 0; k < arguments.length; k++) {
            toBeZipped.push(arguments[k][j]);
        }
        zipped.push(toBeZipped);
    }
    return zipped;
}

It's not bulletproof, but it's still interesting.

A generator approach to pythons zip function.

function* zip(...arrs){
  for(let i = 0; i < arrs[0].length; i++){
    a = arrs.map(e=>e[i])
    if(a.indexOf(undefined) == -1 ){yield a }else{return undefined;}
  }
}
// use as multiple iterators
for( let [a,b,c] of zip([1, 2, 3, 4], ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], ['hi', 'hello', 'howdy', 'how are you']) )
  console.log(a,b,c)

// creating new array with the combined arrays
let outputArr = []
for( let arr of zip([1, 2, 3, 4], ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], ['hi', 'hello', 'howdy', 'how are you']) )
  outputArr.push(arr)

I have created a simple function to do so with a option to provide an zipper function

function zip(zipper, ...arrays) {
    if (zipper instanceof Array) {
        arrays.unshift(zipper)
        zipper = (...elements) => elements
    }

    const length = Math.min(...arrays.map(array => array.length))
    const zipped = []

    for (let i = 0; i < length; i++) {
        zipped.push(zipper(...arrays.map(array => array[i])))
    }

    return zipped
}

https://gist.github.com/AmrIKhudair/4b740149c29c492859e00f451832975b

I'm not a javascript guy but I feel like many of these answers are trying to find the cutest and most clever solution using Array.map which is fine, but for someone like me that doesn't use javascript every day here are some alternatives that might possibly be a bit more readable.

Maybe a way to avoid some cute and clever code would be:

function zip(a,b){
    // pre-allocate an array to hold the results 
    rval=Array(Math.max(a.length, b.length));
    for(i=0; i<rval.length; i++){ 
        rval[i]=[a[i],b[i]] 
    }
    return rval
}

If you like generators:

function* _zip(a,b){
    len = Math.max(a.length, b.length) // handle different sized arrays
    for(i=0; i<len; i++) { yield [a[i],b[i]] }
}

Or if you really want to use Array.map:

function map(a,b){
    x = a.length > b.length ? a : b // call map on the biggest array
    return x.map((_,i)=>[a[i],b[i]])
}

As I said, I'm not an everyday javascript guy so, these aren't going to be the most elegant solutions but they are readable to me.

Below is a fast and efficient way of doing this, using iter-ops library, operator zip:

const {pipe, zip} = require('iter-ops');

const i = pipe(array1, zip(array2, array3));

console.log(...i); //=> [ 1, 'a', 4 ] [ 2, 'b', 5 ] [ 3, 'c', 6 ]

The library processes all inputs as iterables, so they are iterated over just once. And it can handle, in the same way, all types of iterable objects - Iterable, AsyncIterable, Iterator, AsyncIterator.

---

P.S. I'm the author of iter-ops.

The Mochikit library provides this and many other Python-like functions. developer of Mochikit is also a Python fan, so it has the general style of Python, and also the wraps the async calls in a twisted-like framework.

There is no equivalent function. If you have only a few arrays you should use a for loop to get an index and then use the index to access the arrays:

var array1 = [1, 2, 3];
var array2 = ['a','b','c'];

for (let i = 0; i < Math.min(array1.length, array2.length); i++) {
    doStuff(array1[i], array2[i]);
}

You can have an inner loop over the arrays if you have more.

Here is my solution

let zip = (a, b) => (a.length < b.length
  ? a.map((e, i) => [e, b[i]])
  : b.map((e, i) => [a[i], e]))

This shaves a line off Ddi's iterator-based answer:

function* zip(...toZip) {
  const iterators = toZip.map((arg) => arg[Symbol.iterator]());
  const next = () => toZip = iterators.map((iter) => iter.next());
  while (next().every((item) => !item.done)) {
    yield toZip.map((item) => item.value);
  }
}

If you are fine with ES6:

const zip = (arr,...arrs) =>(
                            arr.map(
                              (v,i) => arrs.reduce((a,arr)=>[...a, arr[i]], [v])))