From: "Darshan.Ishaya" <Darshan.Ishaya@...>
Date: 2006-11-23T11:55:14+09:00
Subject: Re: Compare Array Values?

Well, I'm new to Ruby, but it was an interesting question so I gave it
a stab.  My first idea was

a.sort == b.sort

which works if all the elements of an array of of the same class.  But
if you mix objects of different class (like you example with Fixnums
and a String), sort() craps out on it.  You can pass a block to sort,
but I couldn't think of a good way to use that to our advantage.  So I
resorted to more of a brute force method:

def same_elems?(array1, array2)
  return false unless array1.length == array2.length

  tmp = array2.clone
  array1.each do |item|
    if i = tmp.index(item) then tmp.delete_at(i) end
  end
  return tmp.empty?
end

As far as I can tell it meets all of your criteria.

Darshan

Daniel N wrote:
> I want to check to see if two arrays contain the same values.
> That is, are they the same array but not in the same order.
>
> Example
> equal
> [1,2,3,4,"abc"] should equal [2,3,1,"abc",4]  and all the other different
> orders that are possible
>
> This should not be equal
> [1,2,3] and [1,1,2,3]
> [1,2,3,nil] and [nil, nil, nil, 1,2,1,3,2]
>
> At first I thought of
> (( array1 | array2 ) - array1).size == 0
>
> but this does not take into account duplicate values and the should not
> equals do equal :(.  In fact I have not been able work out how to use any of
> the standard array, or Enumerable methods in such a way I can check if two
> arrays contain the same values as well as taking into account duplicates.
>
> Any pointers?
> 
> Cheers
> Daniel
> 
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