How to remove first element of an array in javascript?

arr.shift() works out of the box: arr = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] arr.shift() alert(arr) // [2, 3, 4, 5]

Wrote a small article about inserting and deleting elements at arbitrary positions in Javascript Arrays. Here's the small snippet to remove an element from any position. This extends the Array class in Javascript and adds the remove(index) method. // Remove element at the given index Array.prototype.remove = function(index) { this.splice(index, 1); } So to remove the first item in your example, call arr.remove(): var arr = [1,2,3,5,6]; arr.remove(0); To remove the second item, arr.remove(1); Here's a tiny http://r0x0r.tumblr.com/post/304905664/javascript-arrays-custom-methods with insert and delete methods for Array class. Essentially this is no different than the other answers using splice, but the name splice is non-intuitive, and if you have that call all across your application, it just makes the code harder to read.

arr.slice(begin[,end]) is non destructive, splice and shift will modify your original array

arr=arr.slice(1);