[ruby-core:18061] Re: New array methods cycle, choice, shuffle (plus bug in cycle)

On Fri, Aug 1, 2008 at 2:01 PM, Jim Weirich <[e-mail]> wrote:
> On Aug 1, 2008, at 1:53 PM, Thomas Enebo wrote:
>>
>> I would assume a randomized array based on name.  Picking a good name is
>> tough.  Picking a better name is not so easy.  Array.give_me_something
>
>
> What about:
>
>     array.random_choice

This would be a suitable analogy to Python's random.choice(array) ...
but is almost as long and only slightly more readable than:

array[rand(array.length)]

(as Thomas suggested).

I like the idea of Array#sample with an option argument to specify how
many random elements you want.
Would arr.sample(3) mean 'pick 3 elements from arr at random' or would
it mean 'randomly pick an element from arr 3 times, then give the
results'.
I think the former could be pretty useful.

But maybe this feature just isn't necessary.

-greg