Returning the shortest word

Question

I have an array and I want to return the shortest word in this Array
I tried it with the reduce method
but the code doesn't return the right word, this is my code below, any help would be so appreciated.

const shortestWord = arr => arr
  .reduce((a,_,i,ar) => (ar = ar.filter(i => !Number(i)), a = ar[0], ar[i] < a ? a = ar[i] : '', a), '');

let output = shortestWord([4, 'onee', 'two', 2, 'three', 9, 'four', 'longWord']);
console.log(output); // --> 'two'

In this case what should be answer then if `one` is not answer? — Shubham Verma, Dec 24 '20 at 06:27
There's nothing in your code that checks the length of anything. You need to use `a.length` — Barmar, Dec 24 '20 at 06:27
What is `!Number(i)` for? `Number()` doesn't return whether something is a number, it converts it to a number (if it can). — Barmar, Dec 24 '20 at 06:28
You should filter out numbers *before* calling `reduce`, not inside the callback function. — Barmar, Dec 24 '20 at 06:30
`!Number(i)` will also filter out a string that looks numeric, except for `"0"` — Barmar, Dec 24 '20 at 06:30

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 24 '20 at 06:29

You can simplify your code by first filtering on whether the value is a number, and then you only need to compare string lengths:

const shortestWord = arr => arr
  .filter(i => i != +i)
  .reduce((a,v) => a.length > v.length ? v : a);

let output = shortestWord([4, 'onee', 'two', 2, 'three', 9, 'four', 'longWord']);
console.log(output); // --> 'two'

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 24 '20 at 06:36

Filter out numbers before calling reduce(), not inside it. Use typeof to test the type, Number() is for converting from one type to another.

And in the reduce callback function, you need to compare lengths.

const shortestWord = arr => arr
  .filter(el => typeof el == 'string')
  .reduce((a, el) => el.length < a.length ? el : a);

let output = shortestWord([4, 'onee', 'two', 2, 'three', 9, 'four', 'longWord']);
console.log(output); // --> 'two'

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 24 '20 at 06:50

We can filter out the numbers using isNaN and then using reduce compare each word with all the other words. If the current word is smaller than the smallest word we know of, we replace it with the current word:

const shortestWord =
  arr => arr.filter(i => isNaN(i))
  .reduce((a, w, i, ar) => (a = a || ar[0], a = w.length < a.length ? w : a), '');

let output = shortestWord([4, 'onee', 'two', 2, 'three', 9, 'four', 'longWord']);
console.log(output); // --> 'two'

Returning the shortest word

3 Answers3