From: Yusuke ENDOH <mame@...>
Date: 2011-01-11T22:39:22+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:34351] Re: [Ruby 1.9-Feature#4247][Open] New features for Array#sample, Array#choice

Hi,

2011/1/8 Benoit Daloze <eregontp@gmail.com>:
> Is there a reason to change Array#sample instead of using the
> enumerator form with take(n) to get an Array of n random elements ?
>
> I find weird to have a method (#sample) returning a single element or
> an Array depending on parameters.

You have a misunderstanding.  Array#sample already supports optional
argument to specify the count of elements sampled.  This is not a new
behavior.

  $ ruby -ve 'p [1, 2, 3].sample(2)'
  ruby 1.9.2p0 (2010-08-18 revision 29036) [i686-linux]
  [2, 1]

Unfortunately, this behavior is included in 1.9.2 which is already
released.  It can no longer change.


> So here is my proposition:
> Array#sample remains unchanged.
> Array#samples is like the proposed #each_sample, with the option
> :repeat to use replacement.

Though I'm not against your proposition, it may be a bit confusing
because Array#sample may also return some elements.


Also, does anyone have an opinion about the keyword :repeat which
allows duplicated samples?  Personally, I don't hate.

  p [1, 2, 3].sample(5, repeat: true)  #=> [2, 2, 3, 1, 3]

-- 
Yusuke Endoh <mame@tsg.ne.jp>