findSecondSmallestElement()

Step 1: Understand The Problem

First, we need to understand the problem. We have been given a task to create a function, named findSecondSmallestElement. As the name suggests, our task is to take in an array as an argument and find the second smallest element within that array.

// FUNCTION DECLARATION
function findSecondSmallestElement(array) {
  // CODE GOES HERE
}

Step 2: Sorting the Array

JavaScript has a built-in array method named sort(), which can be used to sort the elements of an array in place. It can be used to sort the array in ascending order and the second smallest element will now be at index 1.

function findSecondSmallestElement(array) {
  array.sort((a, b) => a - b);
}

Step 3: Handling Edge Cases

Now, it's important to handle some edge cases to make our function robust. If the array length is less than 2, our function should return null. Because in an array of size less than 2, there is no second smallest element.

function findSecondSmallestElement(array) {
  array.sort((a, b) => a - b);
  if(array.length < 2) {
    return null;
  }  
}

Step 4: Return the Second Smallest Element

After sorting the array in ascending order and after taking care of the edge cases, we can access the second smallest element by its index. In a sorted array, the second smallest element is at the index 1 (since the index starts at 0). So we can return array[1].

function findSecondSmallestElement(array) {
  array.sort((a, b) => a - b);
  if(array.length < 2) {
    return null;
  }   
  return array[1];
}

Conclusion:

And that's it, we have completed our function findSecondSmallestElement. This function takes an array of numbers as an argument, sort the array in ascending order, handles a few edge cases and returns the second smallest number in that array.

function findSecondSmallestElement(array) {
  array.sort((a, b) => a - b);
  if(array.length < 2) {
    return null;
  }  
  return array[1];
}