Chalarangelo/30-seconds-of-code

---
title: Count the occurrences of a value in a JavaScript array or string
shortTitle: Count occurrences
type: story
language: javascript
tags: [array,string]
cover: dark-leaves-4
excerpt: Given a value, find out how many times it appears in an array or string.
listed: true
dateModified: 2024-05-14
---

I've often had a need to count the occurrences of a specific value in an array or a string. While both of these use-cases seem simple, there are a few intricacies that you need to be aware of.

## Count value occurrences in an array

`Array.prototype.reduce()` provides the most straightforward way to count the occurrences of a value in an **array**. Simply increment a counter each time the specific value is encountered inside the array and return the final count.

```js
const countOccurrences = (arr, val) =>
  arr.reduce((a, v) => (v === val ? a + 1 : a), 0);

countOccurrences([1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3], 1); // 3
```

> [!NOTE]
>
> You can count the **occurrences of all values** in an array, as described in the [previous article](/js/s/count-grouped-elements).

## Count value occurrences in a string

Counting the occurrences of a value in a **string** is a bit more complex than in an array. You can use `Array.prototype.indexOf()` to look for the value in the string and increment a counter each time it's found. Update the index to the next position after the value is found and continue the search until the value is no longer found, using a `while` loop. The loop terminates when `Array.prototype.indexOf()` returns `-1`.

```js
const countSubstrings = (str, searchValue) => {
  let count = 0,
    i = 0;
  while (true) {
    const r = str.indexOf(searchValue, i);
    if (r !== -1) [count, i] = [count + 1, r + 1];
    else return count;
  }
};

countSubstrings('tiktok tok tok tik tok tik', 'tik'); // 3
countSubstrings('tutut tut tut', 'tut'); // 4
```