Explanation for Rotate Right

Question

Write a function rotateRight(array, num) that takes in an array and a number as args. The function should return a new array where the elements of the array are rotated to the right num times. The function should not mutate the original array and instead return a new array.

Define this function using function expression syntax.

HINT: you can use Array#slice to create a copy of an array

We are being asked for two things:

1. To return an array with all the elements shifted over ‘num’ times.
2. To NOT mutate the original array

Step 1. We need to start the function and create a variable to hold a COPY of our input array.

let rotateRight = function (array, num) {
  let result = array.slice(0);
};

• We assign array.slice(0) to a variable called result.
• Slicing our input array simply creates a sliced copy of the data.
• Remember that by excluding a second argument in our slice parameter allows us to slice from the first argument all the way to the end.

Step 2. We need to create a for loop to tell our function how many times we want to rotate.

let rotateRight = function (array, num) {
  let result = array.slice(0);
  for (var i = 0; i < num; i++) {
    // some code here
  }
};

• By setting our second delimiter to i < num we will ask our loops to run num times.
• Running num times is the same as executing the code block within num times.

Step 3. We need to put some executable code within our for loop to be run during every cycle.

let rotateRight = function (array, num) {
  let result = array.slice(0);
  for (var i = 0; i < num; i++) {
    let ele = result.pop();
    result.unshift(ele);
  }
};

• Since we are rotating to the right, every change to our result array under the hood will look like this (if we ref. our first test case):
• ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e']; (how it looks like at the start)
• ['e', 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd']; (after one run of the for loop)
• ['d', 'e', 'a', 'b', 'c']; (after second/last run of the for loop)
• To accomplish this we first need to ‘pop’ off or remove our last element.
  • Two things happen when we use this built-in function.
    • Our copied array is mutated to lose it’s last ele.
    • The removed element is stored in the variable we assigned to the function.
• Our second step is to add it to the start of our array, to do this we can use unshift.
  • By inputting the variable we are using to hold our removed element into the parameter of unshift we are adding our element to the front of the array.

Step 4.

Now that our for loop has ended and our copied array looks just like how the answer looks, we need to output the answer.

let rotateRight = function (array, num) {
  let result = array.slice(0);
  for (var i = 0; i < num; i++) {
    let ele = result.pop();
    result.unshift(ele);
  }
  return result;
};

• We accomplish this by creating a return line AFTER the for loop.

End Result

let rotateRight = function (array, num) {
  let result = array.slice(0);
  for (var i = 0; i < num; i++) {
    let ele = result.pop();
    result.unshift(ele);
  }
  return result;
};

let arr = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"];
console.log(rotateRight(arr, 2));
["d", "e", "a", "b", "c"];
console.log(arr);
["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"];

let animals = ["wombat", "koala", "opossum", "kangaroo"];
console.log(rotateRight(animals, 3));
["koala", "opossum", "kangaroo", "wombat"];
console.log(animals);
["wombat", "koala", "opossum", "kangaroo"];

Copy and paste it into an editor and see how it turns out!