From: Daniel Schierbeck <daniel.schierbeck@...>
Date: 2005-12-05T22:22:33+09:00
Subject: Re: Oppinions on map vs collect

Gary Watson wrote:
> I've been using collect in all my programs up till now, and I recently 
> discovered that the map function is equivalent.  My question is, (and I 
> know that it really doesn't matter), which is more correct to use if 
> you're trying to stick to doing things ruby's way?  What do people on 
> this newsgroup generally prefer using?
> 
> Thanks in advance for you oppinions.

I usually use #map if I want to collect the return values generated from 
calling a method with each item in the enumerable as an argument:

   results = arr.map { |item| process(item) }

I use #collect when I want to collect attributes from each item in the 
enumerable:

   names = contacts.collect { |contact| contact.name }

This is just what seems logical to me; I'm not aware of any real 
convention on the matter, though it may be a good idea.


Cheers,
Daniel