frequency of objects in an array using Ruby - ruby

Question

If i had a list of balls each of which has a color property. how can i cleanly get the list of balls with the most frequent color.
[m1,m2,m3,m4]
say,
m1.color = blue
m2.color = blue
m3.color = red
m4.color = blue
[m1,m2,m4] is the list of balls with the most frequent color
My Approach is to do:
[m1,m2,m3,m4].group_by{|ball| ball.color}.each do |samecolor|
my_items = samecolor.count
end
where count is defined as
class Array
def count
k =Hash.new(0)
self.each{|x|k[x]+=1}
k
end
end
my_items will be a hash of frequencies foreach same color group. My implementation could be buggy and i feel there must be a better and more smarter way.
any ideas please?

Answer 1

You found group_by but missed max_by
max_color, max_balls = [m1,m2,m3,m4].group_by {|b| b.color}.max_by {|color, balls| balls.length}

Answer 2

Your code isn't bad, but it is inefficient. If I were you I would seek a solution that iterates through your array only once, like this:
balls = [m1, m2, m3, m4]
most_idx = nil
groups = balls.inject({}) do |hsh, ball|
hsh[ball.color] = [] if hsh[ball.color].nil?
hsh[ball.color] << ball
most_idx = ball.color if hsh[most_idx].nil? || hsh[ball.color].size > hsh[most_idx].size
hsh
end
groups[most_idx] # => [m1,m2,m4]
This does basically the same thing as group_by, but at the same time it counts up the groups and keeps a record of which group is largest (most_idx).

Answer 3

How about:
color,balls = [m1,m2,m3,m4].group_by { |b| b.color }.max_by(&:size)

Answer 4

Here's how I'd do it. The basic idea uses inject to accumulate the values into a hash, and comes from "12 - Building a Histogram" in "The Ruby Cookbook".
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
class M
attr_reader :color
def initialize(c)
#color = c
end
end
m1 = M.new('blue')
m2 = M.new('blue')
m3 = M.new('red')
m4 = M.new('blue')
hash = [m1.color, m2.color, m3.color, m4.color].inject(Hash.new(0)){ |h, x| h[x] += 1; h } # => {"blue"=>3, "red"=>1}
hash = [m1, m2, m3, m4].inject(Hash.new(0)){ |h, x| h[x.color] += 1; h } # => {"blue"=>3, "red"=>1}
There are two different ways to do it, depending on how much knowledge you want the inject() to know about your objects.

Answer 5

this produces a reverse sorted list of balls by frequency
balls.group_by { |b| b.color }
.map { |k, v| [k, v.size] }
.sort_by { |k, count| -count}

Answer 6

two parts, I'll use your strange balls example but will also include my own rails example
ary = [m1,m2,m3,m4]
colors = ary.each.map(&:color) #or ary.each.map {|t| t.color }
Hash[colors.group_by(&:w).map {|w, ws| [w, ws.length] }]
#=> {"blue" => 3, "red" => 1 }
my ActiveRecord example
stocks = Sp500Stock.all
Hash[stocks.group_by(&:sector).map {|w, s| [w, s.length] }].sort_by { |k,v| v }
#=> {"Health Care" => 36, etc]

Answer 7

myhash = {}
mylist.each do |ball|
if myhash[ball.color]
myhash[ball.color] += 1
else
myhash[ball.color] = 1
end
end
puts myhash.sort{|a,b| b[1] <=> a[1]}