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Mastering Javascript One-Liners to Look Like a Pro

ben ajaero on February 22, 2024

Mastering Javascript One-Liners to Look Like a Pro Javascript one-liners are all about writing succinct, efficient, and elegant pieces o...

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Samuel Rouse • Feb 22 '24 • Edited

There are a lot of great one-liners in here that can be very useful, but we may need to be more careful with array shuffling. For some purposes a simple random shuffle will suffice, but most shuffles have bias in them, and the amount of bias can depend on the JavaScript engine.

The Fisher-Yates shuffle is reliable and unbiased.

For a good visualization of differences, take a look at Mike Bostock's page Will It Shuffle? and try it in different browsers to see the variation.

ben ajaero • Feb 22 '24

That's true I considered including the bias, however I thought it might confuse people more.
The Fisher-Yates algorithm is great!

Mr. Linxed • Feb 23 '24 • Edited

Remember that one-liners are not always better/faster/easier.

Readability goes over being clever.

Especially when a one-liner only passes its parameters to another method like this one

const copyToClipboard = (content) => navigator.clipboard.writeText(content);

What's wrong with just:

navigator.clipboard.writeText(content);

If anything, the copyToClipboard should check if the clipboard API is available to use.

A guide to writing clean and readable code

Mr. Linxed ・ Feb 23

#programming #beginners #productivity #discuss

codingjlu • Feb 22 '24

Hex to rgb can be one-lined too (not sure why you include the alpha channel if you're not doing anything to it though...):

const hexToRgb = hex => `rgb(${hex.match(/\w\w/g).map(val => parseInt(val, 16))})`

Konrad Przydział • Feb 23 '24 • Edited

From my perspective one-liners are ok as long as they are readable. Nowadays there are a lot of bundlers, compilers etc. which are able to make it more compact so we don't write code for making computer happy. We do it for other developers who need to spend time to understand it.

One good advice: Be pro instead of look like a pro.

Satyam Anand • Feb 22 '24

We love one liners but it can be challenging and sometimes confusing, especially for junior developers.

Btw, thanks for sharing this. Keep posting ❤️👍

Brice • Feb 22 '24 • Edited

I agree that we must keep attention that "one line code" cant suffice. For me a good/pro code portion is a code easy to read/understand/adopt/maintain/extend.
Lenght of the code could be a way de improve the adoption but for ex. a var name or method name or statement complexity of a block.. are impotant too. If a junior is able to quickly adopt and extend your code. Then you're a pro 😎
Thanks for this great article 👌

ben ajaero • Feb 22 '24

Thanks Brice!

ben ajaero • Feb 22 '24

Thank you!

Michael Tharrington • Feb 23 '24

Just have to say that I'm really digging this cover image. It reminds me of synthwave music!

ben ajaero • Feb 24 '24

Thanks Michael! It was definitely inspired.

Adam Crockett 🌀 • Feb 23 '24

There should be a disclaimer that wanting to look like a pro is not being a pro. Writing these and explaining the benefits and drawbacks is being a pro