Neat way to handle array and individual inputs in same function

Lets say we need to make a function doSomething. we need to do it in a way so that it can handle both arguments: (1) a string and (2) an array of strings.

To achieve that previously I used to do something like this:

function doSomething(strs) {
  function _doSomething(str) {
    // some mysterious stuff happening here
    console.log(str)
  }

  if (Array.isArray(strs)) {
      return strs.map(str => _doSomething(str))
  } else {
      return _doSomething(strs)
  }
}

doSomething(["hello", "world"])
doSomething("hello")

now since I learned recursion I do this:

function doSomething(strs) {
  if (Array.isArray(strs)) {
      return strs.map(str => doSomething(str))
  } else {
      console.log(strs);
  }
}

doSomething(["hello", "world"])
doSomething("hello")

cover Photo by pepe nero on Unsplash

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Neat way to handle array and individual inputs in same function

Saurabh Sharma

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