From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2005-12-01T22:07:31+09:00
Subject: String + Range = Strange

How does this work?

irb(main):002:0> ("a".."z").to_a
=> ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h", "i", "j", "k", "l", "m",
"n", "o", "p", "q", "r", "s", "t", "u", "v", "w", "x", "y", "z"]
irb(main):003:0> ("aa".."z").to_a
=> []
irb(main):004:0> ("aa".."1z").to_a
=> []
irb(main):005:0> ("aa".."b1").to_a
["aa".."zz" elided]

What I mean is, what algorithm is used to determine that the stream of
successors is not going to hit the endpoint of the range? And could this
be used to do a faster-than-O(n) set memnbership test?

martin