From: Navindra Umanee <navindra@...>
Date: 2005-02-20T17:22:34+09:00
Subject: destructive! operations

Hi,

Is it more efficient to use the destructive versions of functions in
Ruby?  I know that in Lisp/Scheme destructive counterparts are usually
offered for efficiency reasons.

Can I assume that string.gsub! is preferable to string.gsub when I
know that the side-effect won't be affecting any other code?  

I find the Ruby destructive operations sometimes inconvenient to use.
For example strip! might return null where strip would return a
string.  However, if it's more efficient, I'd rather use the
destructive version.

Thanks,
Navin.