Coding Tip: Try to Code Without Loops
You might uncover better solutions
Update: This article is now part of my book “Learn Coding with Modern JavaScript”.
Read the updated version of it at jscomplete.com/beginning-js.
In a previous article, I wrote about how trying to solve coding challenges without using if-statements might help uncover better solutions. In this article, we will explore how to solve some more challenges, but this time without using any loops.
By loops, I mean imperative loops like for, for...in, for...of, while, and do...while. All of these are similar in the way that they provide an imperative way to perform iterations. The alternative is to perform iterations in a declarative way.
Imperative vs Declarative
This is a big topic. The simplest thing we can say about it is that:
- Imperative represents the HOW
- Declarative represents the WHAT
What? How? And why should you care?
An imperative approach represents a list of steps. Do this first, then do that, and after that do something else. For example: Go over a list of numbers one by one and for every one add its value to a running sum.
