From: mathew <meta@...>
Date: 2005-10-12T06:51:53+09:00
Subject: Re: multi-dimensional Arrays

Peter v. N. wrote:
> I know there exist "simple" ways (Google's thy friend)
> to create md arrays with Ruby. But it's somehow cumbersome
> and it would be nice if it could be done like "array = Array.new(3,3)" 

require 'pp'

# Create and initialize a multi-dimensional array
# given an array of its required dimensions
# and an initial value for all cells
def ArrayFactory(dimensions, initialvalue)
   size = dimensions.first
   if dimensions.length == 1
     return Array.new(size, initialvalue)
   else
     rest = dimensions[1,dimensions.length-1]
     a = Array.new(size)
     for i in 0..size
       a[i] = ArrayFactory(rest, initialvalue)
     end
     return a
   end
end

a = ArrayFactory([3, 5, 7], "Hi!")
pp a

a[2][3][7] = "Hello!"
puts a[2][3][7]
pp a[2][3]

Or see the various enhanced Array classes on RubyForge etc.


mathew
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