Two Dimensional Arrays in Ruby?

M

Mason Kelsey

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

No doubt this question has been asked before but I cannot find it and it is
not documented in three Ruby books I've checked, which is very strange as
two dimensional arrays are a common need in programming.

How does one define and use a two dimensional array in Ruby?

I tried
anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6] [7, 8, 9]]
with
puts anarray[1][1]
does not deliver the 5 that I would expect but instead, provides (in SciTE)
the error message on the line defining the array:
ruby test_2_dimensional_array.rb
test_2_dimensional_array.rb:1:in `[]': wrong number of arguments (3 for 2)
(ArgumentError)
from test_2_dimensional_array.rb:1
Exit code: 1

So what is the secret for working with two dimensional arrays in Ruby? And
is it documented somewhere?

Thanks in advance!
 
H

Harry Kakueki

anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6] [7, 8, 9]]
puts anarray[1][1]

Try adding a comma between the second and third array. :)
anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]

Harry
 
7

7stud --

Mason said:
So what is the secret for working with two dimensional arrays in Ruby?
And
is it documented somewhere?

Thanks in advance!

Maybe you should call on your 20 years of computer programming
experience in 30 different languages to do a little debugging:


anarray = [
[1, 2, 3],
[4, 5, 6],
[7, 8, 9]
]
puts anarray[1][1]

--output:--
5
 
7

7stud --

Mason said:
And
is it documented somewhere?

Oh, yeah. If you look up Arrays in the index of your book, on one of
the pages you will find something like this:
 
J

Josh Cheek

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

No doubt this question has been asked before but I cannot find it and it is
not documented in three Ruby books I've checked, which is very strange as
two dimensional arrays are a common need in programming.

How does one define and use a two dimensional array in Ruby?

I tried
anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6] [7, 8, 9]]
with
puts anarray[1][1]
does not deliver the 5 that I would expect but instead, provides (in SciTE)
the error message on the line defining the array:
ruby test_2_dimensional_array.rb
test_2_dimensional_array.rb:1:in `[]': wrong number of arguments (3 for 2)
(ArgumentError)
from test_2_dimensional_array.rb:1
Exit code: 1

So what is the secret for working with two dimensional arrays in Ruby? And
is it documented somewhere?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, Mason

In Ruby, Arrays are objects, they only have one dimension. But they can hold
anything, including other arrays, so they can behave as multi dimensional
arrays. To get your desired output, you would so something like this

#a two dimensional array
x = Array.new(3){ Array.new(3) }
p x # => [[nil, nil, nil], [nil, nil, nil], [nil, nil, nil]]

#a two dimensional array with your desired output
x = Array.new(3){|i| Array.new(3){|j| 3*i+j+1 } }
x # => [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]

In this example, we say Array.new(3) which says to make an array with three
indexes. Then we pass it a block, which determines how to initialize each
index. The block accepts the variable i, which is the index being assigned,
so it will have values 0, 1, and 2. Then for each of these indexes, we want
it to be an Array, which gets us our second dimension. So in our block we
assign another Array.new(3), to say an array with three indexes. We pass
this Array the block {|j| 3*i+j+1} so j will have values 0, 1, 2 and i will
have values 0, 1, 2. Then we multiply i by 3, because each second dimension
has three indexes, and we add 1 because we want to begin counting at 1
instead of zero.

So this says "create an array with three indexes, where each index is an
array with three indexes, whose values are 3 times the index of the 1st
dimension, plus the second dimension, plus 1"

Hope that helps.
 
M

Mason Kelsey

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

Your helpfulness is appreciated. Unfortunately at age 68 my eyesight is not
what it used to be. It works fine when I insert to missing comma. Ah!
Programming is a young person's game.

anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 0]]
puts anarray[1][1]
puts anarray[0]
puts anarray[2][0]

produces (SciTE)
ruby test_2_dimensional_array.rb 5
1
2
3
7
Exit code: 0

I'm writing a move method for the 8-puzzle problem for my artificial
intelligence class and need a two dimensional way of representing the
positions of the tiles.

Again, thanks.

No Sam

anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6] [7, 8, 9]]
puts anarray[1][1]

Try adding a comma between the second and third array. :)
anarray = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]

Harry
 
M

Mason Kelsey

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

7stud, you need not be jealous of my experience. Yes, I have learned over
100 languages and had a career of 36 years as a programmer. But only a few
of the languages I learned are still viable. Computer languages are dime a
dozen and knowledge of them has a funny way of becoming irrelevant. And age
(I'm 68) does have its own clever ways of leveling the playing field. My
eyesight was not good enough to catch such a trivial error. If I am
fortunate, then, I have helped you debug the problem you have. I wish you
the best and hope you will use your talents wisely.

No Sam

Mason said:
So what is the secret for working with two dimensional arrays in Ruby?
And
is it documented somewhere?

Thanks in advance!

Maybe you should call on your 20 years of computer programming
experience in 30 different languages to do a little debugging:


anarray = [
[1, 2, 3],
[4, 5, 6],
[7, 8, 9]
]
puts anarray[1][1]

--output:--
5
 
R

Robert Klemme

2009/9/7 Mason Kelsey said:
Your helpfulness is appreciated. =A0Unfortunately at age 68 my eyesight i= s not
what it used to be. =A0It works fine when I insert to missing comma. =A0A= h!
Programming is a young person's game.

anarray =3D [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 0]]
puts anarray[1][1]
puts anarray[0]
puts anarray[2][0]

produces (SciTE)
ruby test_2_dimensional_array.rb 5
1
2
3
7
Exit code: 0

I'm writing a move method for the 8-puzzle problem for my artificial
intelligence class and need a two dimensional way of representing the
positions of the tiles.

You don't have to do this low level. After all, Ruby is an OO
language. You can use class Matrix:

$ irb19 -r matrix
Ruby version 1.9.1
irb(main):001:0> m =3D Matrix[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 0]]
=3D> Matrix[[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 0]]
irb(main):002:0> m[1,1]
=3D> 5
irb(main):003:0>

Cheers

robert

--=20
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/
 

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