Reposition an element to the front of an array in Ruby - ruby

Question

Even coming from javascript this looks atrocious to me:
irb
>> a = ['a', 'b', 'c']
=> ["a", "b", "c"]
>> a.unshift(a.delete('c'))
=> ["c", "a", "b"]
Is there a more legible way placing an element to the front of an array?
Edit my actual code:
if #admin_users.include?(current_user)
#admin_users.unshift(#admin_users.delete(current_user))
end

Answer 1

Maybe this looks better to you:
a.insert(0, a.delete('c'))

Answer 2

Maybe Array#rotate would work for you:
['a', 'b', 'c'].rotate(-1)
#=> ["c", "a", "b"]

Answer 3

This is a trickier problem than it seems. I defined the following tests:
describe Array do
describe '.promote' do
subject(:array) { [1, 2, 3] }
it { expect(array.promote(2)).to eq [2, 1, 3] }
it { expect(array.promote(3)).to eq [3, 1, 2] }
it { expect(array.promote(4)).to eq [1, 2, 3] }
it { expect((array + array).promote(2)).to eq [2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 3] }
end
end
sort_by proposed by #Duopixel is elegant but produces [3, 2, 1] for the second test.
class Array
def promote(promoted_element)
sort_by { |element| element == promoted_element ? 0 : 1 }
end
end
#tadman uses delete, but this deletes all matching elements, so the output of the fourth test is [2, 1, 3, 1, 3].
class Array
def promote(promoted_element)
if (found = delete(promoted_element))
unshift(found)
end
self
end
end
I tried using:
class Array
def promote(promoted_element)
return self unless (found = delete_at(find_index(promoted_element)))
unshift(found)
end
end
But that failed the third test because delete_at can't handle nil. Finally, I settled on:
class Array
def promote(promoted_element)
return self unless (found_index = find_index(promoted_element))
unshift(delete_at(found_index))
end
end
Who knew a simple idea like promote could be so tricky?

Answer 4

Adding my two cents:
array.select{ |item| <condition> } | array
Pros:
Can move multiple items to front of array
Cons:
This will remove all duplicates unless it's the desired outcome.
Example - Move all odd numbers to the front (and make array unique):
data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 5, 1]
data.select{ |item| item.odd? } | data
# Short version:
data.select(&:odd?) | data
Result:
[1, 3, 5, 2, 4]

Answer 5

Another way:
a = [1, 2, 3, 4]
b = 3
[b] + (a - [b])
=> [3, 1, 2, 4]

Answer 6

If by "elegant" you mean more readable even at the expense of being non-standard, you could always write your own method that enhances Array:
class Array
def promote(value)
if (found = delete(value))
unshift(found)
end
self
end
end
a = %w[ a b c ]
a.promote('c')
# => ["c", "a", "b"]
a.promote('x')
# => ["c", "a", "b"]
Keep in mind this would only reposition a single instance of a value. If there are several in the array, subsequent ones would probably not be moved until the first is removed.

Answer 7

In the end I considered this the most readable alternative to moving an element to the front:
if #admin_users.include?(current_user)
#admin_users.sort_by{|admin| admin == current_user ? 0 : 1}
end

Answer 8

If all the elements in the array are unique you can use array arithmetic:
> a = ['a', 'b', 'c']
=> ["a", "b", "c"]
> a -= "c"
=> ["a", "b"]
> a = ["c"] + a
=> ["c", "a", "b"]

Answer 9

Building on above:
class Array
def promote(*promoted)
self - (tail = self - promoted) + tail
end
end
[1,2,3,4].promote(5)
=> [1, 2, 3, 4]
[1,2,3,4].promote(4)
=> [4, 1, 2, 3]
[1,2,3,4].promote(2,4)
=> [2, 4, 1, 3]