# Destructuring Objects and Arrays in JavaScript

> Learn how to use JavaScript destructuring to pull values out of objects and arrays into named variables, rename them, and skip array items you do not need.

Author: [Flavio Copes](https://flaviocopes.com/about/) | Published: 2019-01-04 | Topics: [JavaScript](https://flaviocopes.com/tags/js/) | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/javascript-destructuring/

Given an object, using the destructuring syntax you can extract just some values and put them into named variables:

```js
const person = {
  firstName: 'Tom',
  lastName: 'Cruise',
  actor: true,
  age: 54 //made up
}

const { firstName: name, age } = person //name: Tom, age: 54
```

`name` and `age` contain the desired values.

The syntax also works on arrays:

```js
const a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
const [first, second] = a
```

This statement creates 3 new variables by getting the items with index 0, 1, 4 from the array `a`:

```js
const [first, second, , , fifth] = a
```