From: Mike Harris <GENIE@...>
Date: 2007-01-12T06:49:11+09:00
Subject: Re: A loop within another loop..

Dominic Son wrote:

>Hi. Hopefully you will see the code and see what I'm trying to do, and
>see the problem. The loop seems messy, but my method to help with eye
>strain is to match up the do-end's down an imaginary column... ie:
>
>array.each  # do  # |i|
>     puts i #     #  <-imaginary column
>            # end #
>
>##### So here's the code. ###########
>
>def foo(argument1, argument2)       #1
>user = [2,5]
>
>user.each do |bar|
>output = []                         #2
>argument1.each do |i|               #3
>
>  if i.parent.id == bar.id          #4
>     output << i.parent.name
>  end
>               end
>
>  argument2.each do |i|
>      if i.parent.id == bar.id
>         output << i.name
>      end
>                 end
>return output
>          end
>
>Comments:
>#1 - argument comes in as arrays
>#2 - let's setup the var that will return the array of collected data
>#3 - i think this is where the problem may lie.
>#4 - parent is an acts_as_tree method inside rails, just grabs the
>parant.
>     notice how i call the iterating variable 'bar' inside this new
>loop..is this legal?
>
>My intuition tells me there's probably a better method to do this. Any
>comments, suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>Dominic
>
>  
>
First, your code is missing an end.  Second, making the end to the block 
start is easy with the standard convention

(with the missing end added in)

def foo(argument1, argument2)       #1
  user = [2,5]

  user.each do |bar|
    output = []                         #2
    argument1.each do |i|               #3
      if i.parent.id == bar.id          #4
        output << i.parent.name
      end
    end
  end

  argument2.each do |i|
    if i.parent.id == bar.id
       output << i.name
    end
  end

  output
end

This is infinitely easier (to me, and 99.9% of programmers) than moving 
the end out to match the do.  Do you find this hard to read?  You seem 
to have no problem matching the end to its matching if.