JavaScript: Calling a function with a variable number of arguments

This card describes how to pass an array with multiple element to a JavaScript function, so that the first array element becomes the first function argument, the second element becomes the second argument, etc.

Note how this is different from passing the entire array as the first argument. Compare these two different ways of calling fun() in Ruby:

# Ruby
array = [1, 2, 3]
fun(array)  # same as fun([1, 2, 3]) (1 argument)
fun(*array) # same as fun(1, 2, 3)   (3 arguments)

Depending on your culture the spreading of array elements into multiple argument slots is called "splat args" or "varargs" or "spread args" or "rest operator".

EcmaScript 6 (ES6)

console.log(...array)

This is supported by all current browsers, but not IE 11. If you need to support IE11 you need a transpiler Show archive.org snapshot .

EcmaScript 5 (ES5)

var array = [1, 2, 3]
console.log.apply(console, array)

CoffeeScript

console.log(array...)