From: Florian Gross <flgr@...>
Date: 2004-09-18T19:09:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Accessing Hash elements in sorted order?

Gavin Sinclair wrote:

>>cgi.params.sort.each do |(key, value)|
>>   puts "#{key}=#{value}"
>>end
> 
>    cgi.params.sort.each do |key, value|
> 
> works as well.  Do the parentheses add anything -- like
> future-proofing?

I think it is most clear when using parentheses. (Because it looks 
exactly like the array structure: [number, [english, german]])

Personally, I would like the x = 1, 2 case to be equivalent to x, = 1, 
2. (It would allow blocks to reject arguments easily. E.g. #each could 
yield(item, index) and if you were to do |item| it would work correctly.)

Here are some possible styles. Maybe you will prefer an other one than me:

number_words = [
  [1, %w{one eins}],
  [2, %w{two zwei}],
  [3, %w{three drei}]
]

number_words.each do |(number, (english, german))|
   puts "#{number} is '#{english}' in English and " +
        "'#{german}' in German"
end

number_words.each do |number, words|
   # I think this should be *words for clarity, but in the
   # rhs of the argument list assignment there is no splash. (AFAIK)
   english, german = words
   ...
end

number_words.each do |number, (english, german)|
   # Combined
   ...
end

Hm, I guess it's mostly an "explicit is easier to understand than 
implicit" decision for me.

Regards,
Florian Gross