JavaScript reverse method

last modified April 4, 2025

In this article we show how to reverse arrays using the reverse method in JavaScript.

Array reversal

Array reversal is the operation of changing the order of elements in an array. The reverse method reverses the order of elements in an array in place. The first element becomes last, and the last element becomes first.

This method modifies the original array and returns a reference to the same array. Unlike some array methods, reverse does not create a new array but changes the existing one.

The reverse method is useful when you need to process elements in reverse order or display data from newest to oldest. It works with all types of array elements including numbers, strings, and objects.

Basic reverse example

The following example demonstrates the basic usage of the reverse method.

main.js

const fruits = [‘apple’, ‘banana’, ‘cherry’]; fruits.reverse();

console.log(fruits);

We create an array of fruits and reverse its order. The original array is modified directly. The first element becomes last and vice versa.

$ node main.js [ ‘cherry’, ‘banana’, ‘apple’ ]

Reversing an array of numbers

The reverse method works with arrays containing any data type.

main.js

const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; numbers.reverse();

console.log(numbers);

We reverse an array of numbers. The method works the same way regardless of the element type. The original array is modified in place.

$ node main.js [ 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ]

Reversing and creating a new array

To reverse an array without modifying the original, we can create a copy first.

main.js

const original = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’]; const reversed = […original].reverse();

console.log(original); console.log(reversed);

We use the spread operator to create a shallow copy of the array before reversing. This preserves the original array while giving us a reversed version.

$ node main.js [ ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ ] [ ‘c’, ‘b’, ‘a’ ]

Reversing a string using reverse

We can use reverse with string manipulation by converting to an array.

main.js

const str = ‘hello’; const reversedStr = str.split(’’).reverse().join(’’);

console.log(reversedStr);

We split the string into an array of characters, reverse the array, then join it back into a string. This is a common technique for string reversal in JS.

$ node main.js olleh

Reversing nested arrays

The reverse method only reverses the top-level array elements.

main.js

const nested = [[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6]]; nested.reverse();

console.log(nested);

When reversing an array containing nested arrays, the nested arrays themselves are reversed as elements. Their internal order remains unchanged.

$ node main.js [ [ 5, 6 ], [ 3, 4 ], [ 1, 2 ] ]

Source

Array reverse - language reference

In this article we have demonstrated how to use the reverse() method to reverse arrays in JavaScript.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

List all JS Array Functions.