Adding to an array question

[Corey Haines]

I need to add a string to the end of an array count number of times. I
was wondering if I could get some advice on the prefered way to do it
in Ruby.

@bucket is the array


def add_person(count, name)
@bucket += Array.new(count, name)
end

or some other ideas

def add_person(count, name)
count.times {@bucket << name }
end
# or some variation of looping

Personally, I like the adding a new array to the @bucket array. I
realize (at least I assume) that it creates a temporary Array, but I
think it is more understandable?

Thoughts?
Thanks, I'm just learning Ruby
-Corey

 

[Stefan Rusterholz]

I need to add a string to the end of an array count number of times. I
was wondering if I could get some advice on the prefered way to do it
in Ruby.

@bucket is the array


def add_person(count, name)
@bucket += Array.new(count, name)
end

or some other ideas

def add_person(count, name)
count.times {@bucket << name }
end
# or some variation of looping

Personally, I like the adding a new array to the @bucket array. I
realize (at least I assume) that it creates a temporary Array, but I
think it is more understandable?

Thoughts?
Thanks, I'm just learning Ruby
-Corey

def add_person(name, count=1) # I assume adding once as a default is
rather safe
@bucket.concat(Array.new(count) { name.dup }) # a) this will create a
new string object everytime
@bucket.concat(Array.new(count, name) # b) this will use the *same*
string object everytime
end

Use either a) or b). Be aware that with b) if you do e.g.
@bucket.last.upcase!, it will reflect on all slots that contain the same
object.
As to why I prefer this concat solution over array +=: it doesn't create
throw away objects everytime.

Regards
Stefan

 

[Corey Haines]

Thanks for the tips, Stefan. I like your tip on doing .dup, as well.

Thanks again!

-Corey