[ruby-core:18066] Re: New array methods cycle, choice, shuffle (plus bug in cycle)

Gregory Brown wrote:
> 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.
>   
Actually 'sample(n=1)' seems like it make a lot more sense than 'choice' 
(if you assume that it is useful that Array has this method in the first 
place).  sampling data is a pretty common phrase.

Perhaps a good name does exist...

-Tom