elements are being added to every row when inserting into a row for a 2D array that has been filled with empty Arrays

Question

I am creating a new matrix where I want to take the rows of the original matrix and make them into columns as well as take the columns of the original matrix and make them into rows.

A matrix of:

[[1,2]             
 [3,4]             [[1,3,5]
 [5,6]] turns into  [2,4,6]]

When I initialize the new matrix while using the fill() method to create my rows, the insertions duplicate for every row when inserting into a row.

const arrOne = [[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]

var transpose = function(matrix) {
    const transposedArr = new Array(matrix[0].length).fill(new Array()); // initializes array to [ [], [], [] ]
        
    //iterate through row
    for(let i = 0; i < matrix.length; i++) {        
        //iterate through columns at row
        for(let j = 0; j < matrix[i].length; j++) {
            transposedArr[j].push(matrix[i][j])
        }
    }
    return transposedArr;
};
console.log(transpose(arrOne));

This will print

[
  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9],
]

When I initialize my array using a for loop, I do not get duplicate entries

const arrOne = [[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]

var transpose = function(matrix) {
    const transposedArr = [] // initializing using const transposedArr = Array() also works!
    for(let i = 0; i < matrix[0].length; i++) { // initializes array to [ [], [], [] ]
        transposedArr.push(new Array())
    } 
        
    //iterate through row
    for(let i = 0; i < matrix.length; i++) {        
        //iterate through columns at row
        for(let j = 0; j < matrix[i].length; j++) {
            transposedArr[j].push(matrix[i][j])
        }
    }
    return transposedArr;
};
console.log(transpose(arrOne));

This will print:

[ 
 [ 1, 4, 7 ],
 [ 2, 5, 8 ],
 [ 3, 6, 9 ] 
]

ASK : Why is it that when I initialize the array using the fill() method, it is duplicating my insertions for each row?

I came across this issue when working on this Leetcode problem: https://leetcode.com/problems/transpose-matrix/

I also tested this code in repl. It was to make sure it wasn't an issue in Leetcode's environment.

Answer 1

 const matrix = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]; /* Allocate newMatrix array */ const newMatrix = []; for (const i in matrix) { const temp = []; for (const j in matrix[i]) temp.push(matrix[j][i]); newMatrix.push(temp); } console.log(newMatrix);

First of all, I have created and new array with the opposite length from the first array (Rows = Cols / Cols = Rows) .

Then you just have to initialize the second array with [i][j] = [j][i] so it will initialize the column of the original matrix to the row of the new one.

Hope you understood.

By the way fill method "fills" the array element to a STATIC value, and the parameters should be (value, start, end).

Documentation: Array.prototype.fill()