From: Wes Gamble <weyus@...>
Date: 2006-06-01T06:22:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie: Does Array.each guarantee an ordered result?

Wes Gamble wrote:
> James Gray wrote:
>> On May 31, 2006, at 2:44 PM, transfire@gmail.com wrote:
>> 
>>> They are the same. A for-loop is "translated" into an each-loop.
>> 
>> Well, almost:
>> 
>>  >> things = [1, 2, 3]
>> => [1, 2, 3]
>>  >> things.each { |thing| }
>> => [1, 2, 3]
>>  >> thing
>> NameError: undefined local variable or method `thing' for main:Object
>>          from (irb):3
>>          from :0
>>  >> for thing in things
>>  >>   # ...
>> ?> end
>> => [1, 2, 3]
>>  >> thing
>> => 3
>> 
>> James Edward Gray II
> 
> Valid.  But as long as you're not interested in manipulating that last 
> element outside of the loop, they're functionally equivalent.
> 
> Thanks for everyone for the good info.
> 
> Wes

By the way, I just realized - I meant that I wanted the array elements 
in subscript lowest to highest order (in their natural array order), NOT 
that I wanted to sort the values.  My language was sloppy in the OP.

I just wanted to know if each was basically a hash iterator and if so, 
did I have to be concerned about a hash not having any implicit 
ordering.

Put another way, by using the each method on an array, was I "giving up" 
the implied ordering of the array so that I might not get the array 
elements in the order in which they existed in the array.

Wes



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