Flatten an array in Javascript without recursion

flatten.js

'use strict'

var Benchmark = require('benchmark')
var suite = new Benchmark.Suite;

var list = [1, 2, 3, [[4]], [[[5]]], [6], [[7]]]

function flattenRecursive (list) {
  var flatList = []
  list.forEach(function (item) {
    if (item instanceof Array === true) {
      flatList = flatList.concat(flattenRecursive(item))
    } else {
      flatList.push(item)
    }
  })
  return flatList
}

function flatten (list) {
  var clonedList = list.slice(0)
  var flatList = []
  while (clonedList.length) {
    var item = clonedList.shift()
    if (item instanceof Array === true) {
      clonedList = item.concat(clonedList)
    } else {
      flatList.push(item)
    }
  }
  return flatList
}

suite.add('flattenRecursive', function() {
  flattenRecursive(list)
})
.add('flatten', function() {
  flatten(list)
})
.on('cycle', function(event) {
  console.log(String(event.target));
})
.on('complete', function() {
  console.log('Fastest is ' + this.filter('fastest').map('name'));
})
.run()

Your tests are running over an empty array. Try this in every test instead passing list var:

function getList () {
  return [1, 2, 3, [[4]], [[[5]]], [6], [[7]]]
}

.add('flatten', function() {
  flatten(getList())
})

@thetutlage I think the majority of the performance difference between the flattenRecursive and flatten is that .forEach is very slow. Try this:

function flattenRecursive2 (arr) {
  var flatList = []
  var i = -1;
  var len = arr.length - 1;
  while (i++ < len) {
    if (Array.isArray(arr[i])) {
      flatList = flatList.concat(flattenRecursive2(arr[i]))
    } else {
      flatList.push(arr[i])
    }
  }
  return flatList;
}

or how about how about:

function flattenRecursive3(array) {
  return (function traverse(arr, flatList) {
    var i = -1;
    var len = arr.length - 1;
    while (i++ < len) {
      if (Array.isArray(arr[i])) {
        traverse(arr[i], flatList);
      } else {
        flatList.push(arr[i])
      }
    }
    return flatList;
  })(array, []);
}

@thetutlage the solution with recursion is much faster when written in the right way :) https://jsperf.com/flatten-array-r1

@gauravmuk your link is 404