[ruby-core:120984] [Ruby master Feature#20953] Array#fetch_values vs #values_at protocols

Issue #20953 has been updated by mame (Yusuke Endoh).


It was discussed at the dev meeting. @matz said that it would be good to raise an IndexError consistently if beginless or endless range is passed to `Array#fetch_values`.

The expected behavior of `Array#fetch_values` when given beginless range and endless range seemed to be different depending on who you ask: behave like `Array#slice`, attempt to create an array of infinite length, etc. Matz said that there is no need to allow such an ambiguous input because `Array#fetch_values` is more strict than `values_at`.

----------------------------------------
Feature #20953: Array#fetch_values vs #values_at protocols
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20953#change-111886

* Author: zverok (Victor Shepelev)
* Status: Open
* Assignee: matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
----------------------------------------
I believe that the user might expect `#fetch_values` to be a stricter version of `#values_at`, confirming to the same protocol for arguments. 

But the current implementation for `#fetch_values` is simpler:
```ruby
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5].values_at(0, 3..4)    #=> [1, 4, 5]
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5].fetch_values(0, 3..4) # TypeError: in 'Array#fetch': no implicit conversion of Range into Integer
```

I believe aligning the implementations would lessen confusion (even if it makes `#fetch_values` implementation somewhat less trivial).

The practical example of usefulness:
```ruby
HEADERS = %w[Name Department]

def table_headers(rows)
  HEADERS.fetch_values(...rows.map(&:size).max) { '<unknown'> }
  # Or, alternatively:
  # HEADERS.fetch_values(...rows.map(&:size).max) { raise ArgumentError, "No header defined for column #{it + 1}" }
end

table_headers([
  ['John'],
  ['Jane'],
]) #=> ["Name"]

table_headers([
  ['John'],
  ['Jane', 'Engineering'],
]) #=> ["Name", "Department"]

table_headers([
  ['John', 'Accounting', 'Feb 24'],
  ['Jane', 'Engineering'],
]) #=> ["Name", "Department", "<unknown>"]
# or ArgumentError No header defined for column 3
```
(Obviously, we can use `fetch_values(*(0...max_row_size))` as an argument, but it feels like an unjustified extra work when `values_at` already can do this.)



-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/
 ______________________________________________
 ruby-core mailing list -- [e-mail]
 To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
 ruby-core info -- https://ml.ruby-lang.org/mailman3/lists/ruby-core.ml.ruby-lang.org/