I have been reading this:
https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/2.4.0/Enumerator.html
I am trying to understand why someone would use .to_enum, I mean how is that different than just an array? I see :scan was passed into it, but what other arguments can you pass into it?
Why not just use .scan in the case below? Any advice on how to understand .to_enum better?
"Hello, world!".scan(/\w+/) #=> ["Hello", "world"]
"Hello, world!".to_enum(:scan, /\w+/).to_a #=> ["Hello", "world"]
"Hello, world!".to_enum(:scan).each(/\w+/).to_a #=> ["Hello", "world"]
Arrays are, necessarily, constructs that are in memory. An array with a a lot of entries takes up a lot of memory.
To put this in context, here's an example, finding all the "palindromic" numbers between 1 and 1,000,000:
# Create a large array of the numbers to search through
numbers = (1..1000000).to_a
# Filter to find palindromes
numbers.select do |i|
is = i.to_s
is == is.reverse
end
Even though there's only 1998 such numbers, the entire array of a million needs to be created, then sifted through, then kept around until garbage collected.
An enumerator doesn't necessarily take up any memory at all, not in a consequential way. This is way more efficient:
# Uses an enumerator instead
numbers = (1..1000000).to_enum
# Filtering code looks identical, but behaves differently
numbers.select do |i|
is = i.to_s
is == is.reverse
end
You can even take this a step further by making a custom Enumerator:
palindromes = Enumerator.new do |y|
1000000.times do |i|
is = (i + 1).to_s
y << i if (is == is.reverse)
end
end
This one doesn't even bother with filtering, it just emits only palindromic numbers.
Enumerators can also do other things like be infinite in length, whereas arrays are necessarily finite. An infinite enumerator can be useful when you want to filter and take the first N matching entries, like in this case:
# Open-ended range, new in Ruby 2.6. Don't call .to_a on this!
numbers = (1..).to_enum
numbers.lazy.select do |i|
is = i.to_s
is == is.reverse
end.take(1000).to_a
Using .lazy here means it does the select, then filters through take with each entry until the take method is happy. If you remove the lazy it will try and evaluate each stage of this to completion, which on an infinite enumerator never happens.
I'm working on a mini project for a summer class. I'd like some feedback on the code I have written, especially part 3.
Here's the question:
Create an array called numbers containing the integers 1 - 10 and assign it to a variable.
Create an empty array called even_numbers.
Create a method that iterates over the array. Place all even numbers in the array even_numbers.
Print the array even_numbers.
Here's my code, so far:
numbers = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
print numbers[3]
even_numbers.empty?
def even_numbers
numbers.sort!
end
Rather than doing explicit iteration, the best way is likely Array#select thus:
even_numbers = numbers.select { |n| n.even? }
which will run the block given on each element in the array numbers and produce an array containing all elements for which the block returned true.
or an alternative solution following the convention of your problem:
def get_even_numbers(array)
even_num = []
array.each do |n|
even_num << n if n.even?
end
even_num
end
and of course going for the select method is always preferred.
I want to put a possibly infinite amount of numbers in and then it's added to an array, which is then all added together.
I saw this on a few other questions but they were all just puts-ing the array, not summing.
case input
when 'add'
puts "Enter the numbers to add on separate lines then hit enter on another line"
add_array = []
numbers_to_add = " "
while numbers_to_add != ""
numbers_to_add = gets.chomp
add_array.push numbers_to_add
end
add_array.delete('')
add_array.map(&:to_f).inject(:+)
puts add_array
end
You can utilize the inject method.
[1,2,3].inject(:+) #=> 6
By the looks of your code I'd guess that your incoming array is an array of strings, not an array of numbers. To convert them to decimals (floats) you can use:
sum = add_array.map(&:to_f).inject(:+)
puts sum
This applies the #to_f operation on every element, then passes that to the summing function (#inject(:+))
I have a ruby problem
Here's what i'm trying to do
def iterate1 #define method in given class
#var3 = #var2.split(" ") #split string to array
#var4 = #var3
#var4.each do |i| #for each array item do i
ra = []
i.each_char {|d| ra << counter1(d)} # for each char in i, apply def counter1
#sum = ra.inject(:+)
#sum2 = #sum.inject(:+) #have to do the inject twice to get values
end
#sum2
I know i have over complicated this
Basically the input is a string of letters and values like "14556 this word 398"
I am trying to sum the numbers in each value, seperated by the whitespace like (" ")
When i use the def iterate1 method the block calls the counter1 method just fine, but i can only get the value for the last word or value in the string.
In this case that's 398, which when summed would be 27.
If i include a break i get the first value, which would be 21.
I'm looking to output an array with all of the summed values
Any help would be greatly appreciated
I think you're after:
"10 d 20 c".scan(/\b\d+\b/).map(&:to_i).inject(:+) # Returns 30
scan(/\b\d+\b/) will extract all numbers that are made up of digits only in an array, map(&:to_i) will convert them to integers and I guess you already know what inject(:+) will do.
I'm not sure if I understand what you're after correctly, though, so it might help if you provide the answer you expect to this input.
EDIT:
If you want to sum the digits in each number, you can do it with:
"12 d 34 c".scan(/\b\d+\b/).map { |x| x.chars.map(&:to_i).inject(:+) }
x.chars will return an enumerator for the digits, map(&:to_i) will convert them to integers and inject(:+) will sum them.
The simplest answer is to use map instead of each because the former collects the results and returns an array. e.g:
def iterate1 #define method in given class
#var3 = #var2.split(" ") #split string to array
#var4 = #var3
#var4.map do |i| #for each array item do i
ra = []
i.each_char {|d| ra << counter1(d)} # for each char in i, apply def counter1
#sum = ra.inject(:+)
#sum2 = #sum.inject(:+) #have to do the inject twice to get values
end
end
You could write it a lot cleaner though and I think Stefan was a big help. You could solve the issue with a little modification of his code
# when you call iterate, you should pass in the value
# even if you have an instance variable available (e.g. #var2)
def iterate(thing)
thing.scan(/\b\d+\b/).map do |x|
x.chars.map{|d| counter1(d)}.inject(:+)
end
end
The above assumes that the counter1 method returns back the value as an integer
So, maybe I'm over-complicating something that isn't that hard, but here goes.
In Ruby, there's a method of looping called .each. I think that this is very cool--but what I'm finding less cool is the amount of stuff written about the pipe that comes after it (or any other do-type loop in Ruby, it would seem). Sometimes there is a single thing in the pipe:
basket.each do |fruit|
puts "This is a #{fruit}.\n"
end
But sometimes, there are two things in this pipe, like so:
contacts.each do |name, profession|
puts "#{name} is a #{profession}.\n"
end
So what I'm wondering now, is it possible to have more than two items in that pipe? Like if I have a huge, big, and ugly multi-dim array?
What if I add things to my pipe and they're not there? Will it give the value in the pipe nil? Or will it throw an error?
Again, sorry if this is obvious to long-time Rubyists, but I came from the land of strictly typed variables, and I'm now leaving PHP land, too. :)
EDIT
So what if I have something like this:
categories = [["Bathroom", "Bathroom Fixtures", "Plumbing"],
["Ceiling Fixtures", "Chandeliers", "Flush Mounts", "Mini Chandeliers", "Semi-Flush Mounts", "Pendants", "Track Lighting", "Mini Pendants", "Directional", "Island/Pool Table", "Recessed Lighting"],
["Outdoor", "Exterior", "Landscape Lighting"],
["Fans", "Fans", "Fan Accessories"],
["Lamps", "Lamps", "Shades"],
["Wall Fixtures", "Sconces", "Foyer/Hall Lanterns"],
["Specialty", "Undercabinet", "Light Bulbs", "Lighting Controls", "Glass", "Specialty Items", "Utility"],
["Home Decor", "Decor/Home Accents", "Furniture"]]
Can I loop through it like this?
categories.each do |category, subcats|
puts "The main category is #{category} and the sub categories are: "
subcats.each do |subcat|
puts "#{subcat}, "
end
end
Lets start with a break down of the each method.
a = [1,2,3,4,5]
a.each do |num|
puts num
end
# 1
# 2
# 3
# 4
# 5
The do ... end portion is called a block
This block accepts one parameter (an element in the array)
The way you pass parameters to a block is with |'s
If you supply more than one argument to the block:
a.each do |num, x|
puts num
puts x
end
# 1
#
# 2
#
# 3
#
# 4
#
# 5
#
x is nil for each iteration.
Lets write a method of our own that uses blocks so you can see how they work.
def my_each(a=[])
a.each do |x|
yield x if block_given?
end
end
my_each(a) do |num|
puts num
end
Here yield x is saying, execute the supplied block and pass x to it.
If you pass another parameter to your block, it is nil. Why?
Our implementation of my_each doesn't know anything about a second parameter so it does not yield anything so it remains nil.
When you have a simple array, the following things happen:
arr = [1,2,3,4]
arr.each do |x|
p x
end
1
2
3
4
=> [1,2,3,4]
arr.each do |x,y|
p x
p y
end
1
nil
2
nil
3
nil
4
nil
=> [1,2,3,4]
so if ruby doesn't know what to put into the block argument, it simply sets it to nil. Now consider a nested array:
arr = [[1,2],[3,4],[5,6]]
arr.each do |x|
p x
end
[1, 2]
[3, 4]
[5, 6]
=> [[1,2],[3,4],[5,6]]
arr.each do |x,y|
p x
p y
end
1
2
3
4
5
6
=> [[1,2],[3,4],[5,6]]
In this case, ruby assumes that you want to assign the two elements of the inner arrays to the block variables x and y. The same thing applies to hashes, where Ruby assigns the key and value to x and y:
hash = {1 => 2, 3 => 4, 5 => 6}
hash.each do |x,y|
p x
p y
end
1
2
3
4
5
6
=> {1=>2,3=>4,5=>6}
When you don't have enough elements in the nested arrays, the block variables are assigned nil, indeed. When there are too many of them, they are simply discarded:
arr = [[1,2,3],[4,5],[6]]
arr.each do |x,y|
p x
p y
end
1
2
4
5
6
nil
=> [[1,2,3],[4,5],[6]]
pretty straightforward!
EDIT:
As for your edited question: no, you cannot apply this 1:1 to Ruby code, you would have to manually apply the splat operator (*) to subcats. This way, ruby assigns all remaining elements to the 'splatted' block variable:
categories.each do |category,*subcats|
puts "The main category is #{category} and the sub categories are: "
subcats.each do |subcat|
puts "#{subcat}, "
end
end
although i would generate a comma-separated list of subcategories like this:
categories.each do |category,*subcats|
puts "The main category is #{category} and the sub categories are: "
puts subcats.join(', ')
end
EDIT 2:
Oh, and you would not handle a huge ugly evil multidimensional array by defining a lot of block parameters for its elements. You probably would iterate through it using nested loops as in almost every other language, if only because you never know how many elements it contains.
The pipes you are talking about is a parameter list of a block "variable". Actually that is some kind of a function pointer, and the pipes marks the parameter list.
Check the description of array.each.
This is not magic, the number of parameters is defined in the block, you can't add more than that, if you do, they won't get a value. The reason is for "sometime" there can be more than one, is that it's probably a hash.each, which has two parameters, a key and a value.
You can create your own functions with block parameters, read this.
For your iteration problem, you can use a hash, or you can write your own iterator.
Multiple Arguments to a Block
Array#each iterates over an array object, and passes either a single object into the block or returns an enumerator. You can redefine this behavior, but #each is the wrong method if you want multiple values at a time; see Enumerator#each_slice for an alternative.
Data Structures
Your problem would be easier to solve with the right data structure. Instead of an array, you should consider using a hash. For example:
categories =
{"Bathroom"=>["Bathroom Fixtures", "Plumbing"],
"Ceiling Fixtures"=>["Chandeliers", "Flush Mounts", "Mini Chandeliers"]}
categories.each do |key, value|
puts "#{key}:"
value.each { |v| puts "\t%s" % v }
end
This returns:
Bathroom:
Bathroom Fixtures
Plumbing
Ceiling Fixtures:
Chandeliers
Flush Mounts
Mini Chandeliers