Best way to import lodash

by William Mcmurray

Here is how I import lodash in my projects :

import _findIndex from 'lodash/findIndex.js'

And here is why :

  1. It works because inside the installed lodash package there is an individual file for each lodash methods.
  2. You should not :
    import _ from 'lodash' because it will include ALL of lodash inside your bundled code. You should instead pick only the methods you need. (search for "tree shaking" for more details)
  3. You could also import specific methods like that :
    import { findIndex } from 'lodash', but it makes it harder to find references to lodash methods later because some are named like other native javascript methods (ex: filter, find, min, max, etc.)
  4. You could also omit the extension like that :
    import _findIndex from 'lodash/findIndex' in environments such as webpack because webpack will handle the lack of file extension. But in a nodejs environment it won't work. (You will face this error : Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find module.)