From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-03-28T22:23:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Array resizing

Hi --

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006, Victor Shepelev wrote:

> Pierre wrote
>
>> So you may code yourself your resize :
>>
>> class Array
>>   def resize(new_size, value=nil)
>>     if new_size < length
>>          slice!(new_size, length)
>>     else
>>          fill(value, -1, new_size-length)
>>     end
>>   self
>>   end
>> end
>
> Yes, I can (in fact, I already did).
>
> The question is more ideological than technical. Why not to have
> Array#resize in standard library? It seems not very rational.

I think it might be because the size of an array isn't important if
the array just contains nils, because uninitialized values default to
nil anyway.  And if you're adding non-nil elements to the array, then
the fact that the size changes is not really the main point; it's just
a side-effect of the operation, so referring to it as a "resize"
operation doesn't fit very well.


David

-- 
David A. Black (dblack@wobblini.net)
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