Question

What should the console read when the following code is run?

const [, , animal] = ['Horse', 'Mouse', 'Cat'];
(animal);

Answer 1

The console should read "Cat".

Step-by-step explanation:

The given code uses destructuring assignment to extract values from an array. In this case, the array ['Horse', 'Mouse', 'Cat'] is being destructured. The structure of the array pattern has three elements, but only the third element (index 2) is being extracted due to the commas before 'animal'. The values at the first and second positions (indexes 0 and 1) are ignored.

['Horse', 'Mouse', 'Cat']

0 1 2

Therefore, 'Cat', the value at index 2, is assigned to the variable 'animal'. When 'animal' is logged to the console, it displays the string 'Cat'. The preceding commas in the destructuring assignment indicate that the first and second elements are skipped, and only the third element ('Cat') is assigned to the 'animal' variable.

This type of destructuring assignment can be useful when specific values from an array need to be extracted or assigned to variables selectively, ignoring certain positions or elements within the array.