From: Eric Luo <eric.python@126.com>
Date: 2006-03-28T19:08:55+09:00
Subject: Noob: The ruby way to multiple Array by multiple?

I want to make a Array multipled by another Array, and the following semantic.
For example:
 [1, 2, 3] * [4, 5]
then I will want [[1, 4], [1, 5], [2, 4], [2, 5], [3, 4], [3, 5]] returned.

I have the following code snippet to implement this function:

class Array
  alias_method :orig_multiple, :*
  def *(arg)
    case arg
    when Array
      if arg.empty?
        self
      else
        inject([]) do |product, item|
          product.concat(arg.collect do |i|
                           case item
                           when Array
                             item.clone << i
                           else
                             [item, i]
                           end
                         end)
        end
      end
    else 
      orig_multiple(arg)
    end
  end
end

It works but seems ugly.

Could anyone please to give me a clue to make it beauty and rubish!

Thx in advance.
Eric