Ruby loop through each element in an array n times - ruby

I've had a tough time finding an exact example of this.
If I have an array that contains 5 elements. E.g.
list = [5, 8, 10, 11, 15]
I would like to fetch what would be the 8th (for example) element of that array if it were to be looped. I don't want to just duplicate the array and fetch the 8th element because the nth element may change
Essentially the 8th element should be the number 10.
Any clean way to do this?

Math to the rescue
list[(8 % list.length) - 1]
A link about this modulo operator that we love

This should do:
def fetch_cycled_at_position(ary, num)
ary[(num % ary.length) - 1]
end
ary = _
=> [5, 8, 10, 11, 15]
fetch_cycled_at_position(ary, 1) # Fetch first element
=> 5
fetch_cycled_at_position(ary, 5) # Fetch 5th element
=> 15
fetch_cycled_at_position(ary, 8) # Fetch 8th element
=> 10

You could use rotate:
[5, 8, 10, 11, 15].rotate(7).first
#=> 10
It's 7 because arrays are zero based.

Just out of curiosity using Array#cycle:
[5, 8, 10, 11, 15].cycle.take(8).last
This is quite inefficient but fancy.

I ran these in my irb to get the output,
irb(main):006:0> list = [5, 8, 10, 11, 15]
=> [5, 8, 10, 11, 15]
irb(main):007:0> list[(8 % list.length) - 1]
=> 10
hope it will help you.

Related

What's the reason the second code won't return what the first code successfully returns

I was doing a quick read up on arrays and some basic methods. And one of the exercise questions at the end of the reading gave me an array and asked to get the following output
=> [10, 8, 4, 2]
Here's the array:
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
solution:1
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
numbers = numbers.select { |number| number.even? }.reverse
numbers.delete(6)
p numbers
But my question to you is why would the above code return the correct output but the following code won't?
solution: 2
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
numbers = numbers.select { |number| number.even? }
numbers.delete(6)
numbers.reverse
p numbers
I understand it's not the most fluent, but when I try to solve these exercises it's easier for me to separate everything and then clean up the code.
I expected it to pull the even numbers delete 6 from them and then print the reversed array.
Instead it pulls the even numbers, deletes 6, and prints the even numbers. Completely skips the .reverse
As max says, .reverse doesn't change the array. Try, instead:
numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
numbers = numbers.select { |number| number.even? }
numbers.delete(6)
numbers.reverse!
p numbers
=> [10, 8, 4, 2]
As other commenters have mentioned, .reverse doesn't change the array.
You either have to declare numbers.reverse as a new variable (i.e. reversed_numbers = numbers.reverse) or use numbers.reverse! (as demonstrated by jvillian) to change the value of the numbers variable itself at invocation.
Between the two, the latter method is more suitable.
Hope this helped!

Create iterator from total difference

I want to iterate through the integers from x up to n values further. I can do this for example with:
x.upto(x + n - 1)
or many other ways, but all of them require me to calculate the end myself, which seems not very elegant. Is there any way to create an iterator directly from the total difference to be iterated?
I imagine something like this:
5.up(10).to_a
# returns [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]
I know I could easily write it myself, but I want to know if what I want already exists in the core.
5.step.take(10) # => [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]

Can I have a ruby block inside another ruby block?

I have a hash whose keys are a range of integers (lets say [1..5]) and its corresponding 5 values are all nil. I have also an array of integers (lets say [1,2,3,4,5]. What I want to do is very specific: I want to take every single key and add it to every single of the array elements, giving me a hash that has the original keys, but has now for values the entire shifted array.
After spending a few hours I have concluded that this is impossible through a really laconic expression, because it is leading to .each shadowing statements.
I think that the only way to go through with this is to create 5 almost identical methods and call them separately.
def a1
array.each do |x|
x+1
end
end
def a2
array.each do |x|
x+2
end
end
and so on..
The end product I want to achieve is this:
{1=>[2,3,4,5,6],2=>[3,4,5,6,7],3=>[4,5,6,7,8],4=>[5,6,7,8,9],5=>[6,7,8,9,10]}
It feels like there should be a more DRY way to achieve this. Any ideas?
Assuming these initial conditions:
h = {1=>nil, 2=>nil, 3=>nil, 4=>nil, 5=>nil}
arr = [1,2,3,4,5]
...it's pretty straightforward:
h.keys.each do |key|
h[key] = arr.map {|i| i+key}
end
# h is now: {1=>[2, 3, 4, 5, 6], 2=>[3, 4, 5, 6, 7], 3=>[4, 5, 6, 7, 8], 4=>[5, 6, 7, 8, 9], 5=>[6, 7, 8, 9, 10]}
(However, it may be that your question is about achieving the initial conditions. If so, I didn't grasp that, and I didn't worry about it; I just started with what I took to be your initial conditions and ended up with your desired result.)
Why don't you do this
h = {}
rng.each{|i| h[i] = ary.map{|j| j + i}}
That should work where rng is the range and ary is the array.
For example
h = {}
(1..5).each{|i| h[i] = [1,2,3,4,5].map{|j| j+i}}
results in
h = {1=>[2, 3, 4, 5, 6], 2=>[3, 4, 5, 6, 7], 3=>[4, 5, 6, 7, 8], 4=>[5, 6, 7, 8, 9], 5=>[6, 7, 8, 9, 10]}

Recursive merge sort in Ruby

I am trying to write a ruby method which performs a merge sort recursively. I have the method working, but It's one of those times where I accidentally got it working so I have no idea WHY it works, and would love to understand how the code I have written works. In psuedocode, the steps I followed look like this.
Split the original array of length n until I have n arrays of length 1
Merge and sort 2 arrays of length m at time to return an array of length m*2
Repeat the step above until I have a single now sorted array of length n
Basically what this looks like to me is a large tree branching out into n branches, with each branch containing an array of length 1. Then I need to take these n branches and somehow merge them back into a single branch within the method.
def merge_sort(arr)
return arr if arr.length == 1
merge(merge_sort(arr.slice(0, arr.length/2)),
merge_sort(arr.slice(arr.length/2, arr[-1])))
end
def merge(arr1, arr2)
sorted = []
begin
less_than = arr1[0] <=> arr2[0]
less_than = (arr1[0] == nil ? 1 : -1) if less_than == nil
case less_than
when -1
sorted << arr1[0]
arr1 = arr1.drop(1)
when 0
sorted << arr1[0]
sorted << arr2[0]
arr1 = arr1.drop(1)
arr2 = arr2.drop(1)
when 1
sorted << arr2[0]
arr2 = arr2.drop(1)
end
end until (arr1.length == 0 && arr2.length == 0)
sorted
end
merge_sort([1,6,3,8,22,3,11,24,54,68,79,80,98,65,46,76,53])
#Returns => [1, 3, 3, 6, 8, 11, 22, 24, 46, 53, 54, 65, 68, 76, 79, 80, 98]
The method I have actually correctly sorts the list, but I am not totally sure how the method combines each branch and then returns the sorted merged list, rather than just the first two length one arrays it combines.
Also, If anyone has ideas for how I can make the merge method prettier to look more like the ruby code I have grown to love please let me know.
Here is my implementation of mergesort in Ruby
def mergesort(array)
return array if array.length == 1
middle = array.length / 2
merge mergesort(array[0...middle]), mergesort(array[middle..-1])
end
def merge(left, right)
result = []
until left.length == 0 || right.length == 0 do
result << (left.first <= right.first ? left.shift : right.shift)
end
result + left + right
end
As you can see, the mergesort method is basically the same as yours, and this is where the recursion occurs so that is what I will focus on.
First, you have your base case: return array if array.length == 1 This is what allows the recursion to work and not go on indefinitely.
Next, in my implementation I have defined a variable middle to represent the middle of the array: middle = array.length / 2
Finally, the third line is where all the work occurs: merge mergesort(array[0...middle]), mergesort(array[middle..-1])
What you are doing here is telling the merge method to merge the mergesorted left half with the mergesorted right half.
If you assume your input array is [9, 1, 5, 4] what you are saying is merge mergesort([9, 1]), mergesort([5, 4]).
In order to perform the merge, you first have to mergesort [9, 1] and mergesort [5, 4]. The recursion then becomes
merge((merge mergesort([9]), mergesort([1])), (merge mergesort([5]), mergesort([4])))
When we recurse again, the mergesort([9]) has reached the base case and returns [9]. Similarly, mergesort([1]) has also reached the base case and returns [1]. Now you can merge [9] and [1]. The result of the merge is [1, 9].
Now for the other side of the merge. We have to figure out the result of merge mergesort([5]), mergesort([4]) before we can merge it with [1, 9]. Following the same procedure as the left side, we get to the base case of [5] and [4] and merge those to get [4, 5].
Now we need to merge [1, 9] with [4, 5].
On the first pass, result receives 1 because 1 <= 4.
On the next pass, we are working with result = [1], left = [9], and right = [4, 5]. When we see if left.first <= right.first we see that it is false, so we return right.shift, or 4. Now result = [1, 4].
On the third pass, we are working with result = [1, 4], left = [9], and right = [5]. When we see if left.first <= right.first we see that it is false, so we return right.shift, or 5. Now result = [1, 4, 5].
Here the loop ends because right.length == 0.
We simply concatenate result + left + right or [1, 4, 5] + [9] + [], which results in a sorted array.
Here is my version of a recursive merge_sort method for Ruby. Which does the exact same as above, but slightly different.
def merge_sort(array)
array.length <= 1 ? array : merge_helper(merge_sort(array[0...array.length / 2]), merge_sort(array[array.length / 2..-1]))
end
def merge_helper(left, right, merged = [])
left.first <= right.first ? merged << left.shift : merged << right.shift until left.length < 1 || right.length < 1
merged + left + right
end
p merge_sort([]) # => []
p merge_sort([20, 8]) # => [8, 20]
p merge_sort([16, 14, 11]) # => [11, 14, 16]
p merge_sort([18, 4, 7, 19, 17]) # => [4, 7, 17, 18, 19]
p merge_sort([10, 12, 15, 13, 16, 7, 19, 2]) # => [2, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19]
p merge_sort([3, 14, 10, 8, 11, 7, 18, 17, 2, 5, 9, 20, 19]) # => [2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20]

count the number of consecutive integer elements in an array

Given I have an array such as follows:
arr = [8, 13, 14, 10, 6, 7, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 4]
I would like to count the number of consecutive number sequences. Eg in the above array the consecutive number sequences (or array-slices) are:
[13,14]
[6,7,8]
[6,7]
And hence we have 3 such slices. What is an efficient Algorithm to count this? I know how I can do it O(N^2) but I'm looking for something which is better than that.
arr = [8, 13, 14, 10, 6, 7, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 4]
p arr.each_cons(2).chunk{|a,b| a.succ == b || nil}.count #=> 3
nilhas a special meaning to the chunk-method: it causes items to be dropped.
arr = [8, 13, 14, 10, 6, 7, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 4]
result = []
stage = []
for i in arr:
if len(stage) > 0 and i != stage[-1]+1:
if len(stage) > 1:
result.append(stage)
stage = []
stage.append(i)
print result
Output:
[[13, 14], [6, 7, 8], [6, 7]]
The time complexity of this code is O(n). (There's only one for loop. And it's not hard to see that each iteration in the loop is O(1).)
I would do as below using Enumerable#slice_before:
a = [8, 13, 14, 10, 6, 7, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5, 2, 6, 7, 4]
prev = a[0]
hash = Hash[a.slice_before do |e|
prev, prev2 = e, prev
prev2 + 1 != e
end.map{|e| [e,e.size] if e.size > 1}]
hash # => {[13, 14]=>2, [6, 7, 8]=>3, [6, 7]=>2}
hash.size # => 3
I think this can be done in O(N) time. If you just want the count,
Iterate through the array. Initialize counter to 0.
If next element is one more or one less than current element, increment the counter.
Continue iterating till the next element is not one more or one less than current element.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you reach the end.
If you want sections of continuously increasing consecutive elements (not clear from your question)
Iterate through the array. Initialize counter to 0.
If next element is one more than current element, increment the counter.
Continue iterating till the next element is not one more than current element.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you reach the end.

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