title: Converting a Node List to an Array tip-number: 08 tip-username: Tevko tip-username-profile: https://twitter.com/tevko tip-tldr: Here’s a quick, safe, and reusable way to convert a node list into an array of DOM elements.

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The querySelectorAll method returns an array-like object called a node list. These data structures are referred to as “Array-like”, because they appear as an array, but can not be used with array methods like map and forEach. Here’s a quick, safe, and reusable way to convert a node list into an array of DOM elements:

const nodelist = document.querySelectorAll('div');const nodelistToArray = Array.apply(null, nodelist);//later on ..nodelistToArray.forEach(...);nodelistToArray.map(...);nodelistToArray.slice(...);//etc...

The apply method is used to pass an array of arguments to a function with a given this value. MDN states that apply will take an array-like object, which is exactly what querySelectorAll returns. Since we don’t need to specify a value for this in the context of the function, we pass in null or 0. The result is an actual array of DOM elements which contains all of the available array methods.

Alternatively you can use Array.prototype.slice combined with Function.prototype.call or Function.prototype.apply passing the array-like object as the value of this:

const nodelist = document.querySelectorAll('div');const nodelistToArray = Array.prototype.slice.call(nodelist); // or equivalently Array.prototype.slice.apply(nodelist);//later on ..nodelistToArray.forEach(...);nodelistToArray.map(...);nodelistToArray.slice(...);//etc...

Or if you are using ES2015 you can use the spread operator ...

const nodelist = [...document.querySelectorAll('div')]; // returns a real array//later on ..nodelist.forEach(...);nodelist.map(...);nodelist.slice(...);//etc...