From: Pete Yandell <pete@...>
Date: 2007-09-07T14:22:31+09:00
Subject: Re: help me condence my code?

Ok, I'm going to try break this down a bit more than the other answers.
Simon Schuster wrote:

> f = File.read("phrases_no_extra.txt")
> f = f.to_a

f = IO.readlines("phrases_no_extra.txt")

> f = f.each { |x| x.chop! }

Your "f =" at the start of this line does nothing. You'd be better off 
with either:

     f.each {|x| x.chop! }

or I prefer:

     f.map! {|x| x.chop }

> f.each_with_index { |x,y|    # deletes the empty array items
> 	if x.size == 0
> 		f.delete_at(y)
> 	end
> 	}

For starters, I don't think each_with_index will be stable if you delete 
elements in the middle of the block, so this probably won't work the way 
you want it to.

That and there's a convenient predicate for testing emptiness of strings.

Much better would be:

      f.delete_if {|x| x.empty? }

> f.each_with_index { |x,y|     # deleting all but the last (which is
> spread of two lines)
> 	if x.include? "]"         # of his comments
> 		f.delete_at(y)
> 	end
> 	}

     f.delete_if {|x| x.include("]") }

> f.each_with_index { |x,y|         # yes, this is me unable to recall
> how to do "or" hahaha.
> 	if x.include? "["
> 		f.delete_at(y)
> 	end
> 	}

     f.delete_if {|x| x.include("[") }

> f.delete_at(-1)          # random whitespace item at the end from the last quote

     f.pop

> puts f[rand(f.size)]

Nothing wrong with this line. :)

So, putting that all together and cleaning up a bit:

     f = IO.readlines("phrases_no_extra.txt").map {|x| x.chop }
     f.delete_if {|x| x.empty? || x.include?("[") || x.include?("]") }
     f.pop
     puts f[rand(f.size)]

That's pretty neat I think, but if you agree with Alex that looping over 
the array multiple times is a performance problem, then you should try 
something like:

     f = []
     IO.each("phrases_no_extra.txt") do |x|
         x.chop!
         f << x unless x.empty? || x.include?("[") || x.include?("]")
     end
     f.pop
     puts f[rand(f.size)]

(This is an improvement over Alex's solution in that it doesn't read the 
entire file into memory at once. Rather it steps over the file reading a 
line at a time and only adding the ones you need to your array.)

Regards,

Pete Yandell
http://notahat.com/