calculate the average
of an array
[ reduce | length ]

Calculate the average of an array

Write a function that takes an array of numbers and returns the average of that array.


Example ...

Enter an array ...

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5] array

3 average of the array

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15 sum of the array

There are 5 elements in the array.

sum / number of elements = average

15 / 5 = 3 average of the array

Arrays are used to store multiple values in a single variable.

Each value is called an element, and each element has a numeric position in the array, known as its index.

Arrays are zero-indexed, meaning the first element is at index 0, the second at index 1, and so on.

Arrays can contain any data type, including numbers, strings, and objects.

const arr1 = [2, 4, 6]; array

arr1[0]; element at index 0 → 2

arr1[1]; element at index 1 → 4

arr1[2]; element at index 2 → 6

arr1[3]; element at index 3 → undefined index not found


Numbers are used to represent both integer and floating-point values.

Numbers are most commonly expressed in literal forms like 255 or 3.14159 ↴

let num1 = 5; → number

let num2 = 2.5; → number

let num3 = num1 + num2;

console.log(num3); returns ↴

7.5 → number


Calculate sum of all numbers using ↴

reduce() method → executes a reducer function, resulting in a single output value.

length property → sets or returns the number of elements in an array.


reduce() method iterates over each element in an array, and each iteration returns a single value, which is the accumulator.

When the iteration is finished, the accumulator value will be returned from the method.

It takes two parameters: a callback function and an optional initial value ↴

callback function first parameter.

initialValue second parameter. The accumulator is initialized to the first element of the array if no initial value is provided.

The callback function takes four parameters ↴

accumulator The value resulting from the previous call to callback function - required.

currentValue The value of the current element - required.

currentIndex Index position of currentValue in the array - optional.

Array The array reduce() was called upon - optional.

syntax

array.reduce(callback, initialValue);

array.reduce((accumulator, currentValue, currentIndex, Array), initialValue)


Example 1: Find the sum of the array ↴

const arr2 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6];

arr2.reduce((acc, cur) => acc + cur, 0); Initial value 0

returns 21

During each iteration, the current value cur will be added to the accumulator acc

acc + cur

Iteration ↴

0 acc Initial value 0

1 acc 0 0 + 1 = 1 1

2 acc 1 1 + 2 = 3 3

3 acc 3 3 + 3 = 6 6

4 acc 6 6 + 4 = 10 10

5 acc 10 10 + 5 = 15 15

6 acc 15 15 + 6 = 21 21

The return value becomes the value of the accumulator parameter acc on the next invocation of the callback function.

For the last invocation, the return value becomes the return value of reduce()

When the iteration is finished, the accumulator value will be returned ↴

21 → sum of the array


Example 2: Find even numbers ↴

const arr3 = [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17];

const evenNumbers = arr3.reduce((acc, cur) => {

return cur % 2 === 0 ? [...acc, cur] : acc;

}, []); Initial value is an empty array []

console.log(evenNumbers); returns ↴

[12, 14, 16]

During each interation, the ternary operator evaluates the condition cur % 2 === 0

If current element cur is divisible by 2, it will be added to the accumulator [...acc, cur]

cur % 2 === 0 ? [...acc, cur] : acc

If current element cur not divisible by 2, the accumulator acc will be returned as is.

Iteration ↴

0 acc 11 [] Initial value

1 acc 11 []

2 acc 12 [12] 12 added

3 acc 13 [12]

4 acc 14 [12, 14] 14 added

5 acc 15 [12, 14]

6 acc 16 [12, 14, 16] 16 added

7 acc 17 [12, 14, 16]

The return value becomes the value of the accumulator parameter acc on the next invocation of the callback function.

For the last invocation, the return value becomes the return value of reduce()

When the iteration is finished, the accumulator value will be returned ↴

[12, 14, 16] → even numbers


length property returns the number of elements in an array.

const arr4 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6];

arr4.length; returns ↴

6 → there are 6 elements in the array


Initialize a variable to hold the array to calculate the average.

const array1 = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]; → user input


Define a function findAvgerage to calculate the average of an array.

function findAvgerage(arr) {}

The function takes an array of numbers as input arr and returns the average of that array.

Use the reduce method to calculate the sum of the array.

reduce() method iterates over the array of numbers.

reduce(callbackFn, initialValue)

arr.reduce((sum, num) => sum + num, 0)

sum → accumulator, initialized to 0

num → current element

0 → initialValue

callback function ↴

((sum, num) => sum + num, 0)

The reduce method is used to sum up the elements of the array.

const summedArr = arr.reduce((sum, num) => sum + num, 0) summedArr

The return value becomes the value of the accumulator parameter sum on the next invocation of the callback function.

For the last invocation, the return value becomes the return value of reduce()

Return the average by dividing summedArr by the number of elements in the array arr

return summedArr / arr.length


Call the function with ↴

findAvgerage(array1);


Calculate the average of an array.

const array1 = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10];

function findAverage(arr) {

const summedArr = arr.reduce((sum, num) => sum + num, 0);

return summedArr / arr.length;

}

call function

findAverage(array1); returns ↴

6


Alternative - return on one line ↴

return arr.reduce((sum, num) => sum + num, 0) / arr.length;

Calculate the average of an array