From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2008-03-11T11:03:56+09:00
Subject: Re: shortcut for x = unless x.is_a?(Array)

On Mon, Mar 10, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Paul Mckibbin <pmckibbin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  > => some warning about default to_a being deprecated
>  >
>  > Todd
>
>  which is why x=Array(x) would be better.
>
>  Mac

Like your original response, it depends on what you want to do.

x = {}
Array[x] == Array(x)
=> false

In this case -- with the result -- one encapsulates, the other
modifies.  Same thing with NilClass and Range.  I added a line to your
code to see this for sure...

TEST=[[1,2,3],(1..3),{:a=>:b},1,"test",true,nil,/123/]

TEST.each do |x|
 puts x.class
 puts '============================'
 puts "#{x.inspect}.to_a gives #{x.to_a.inspect}"
 puts "[#{x.inspect}] gives #{([x]).inspect}"
 puts "Array(#{x.inspect}) gives #{Array(x).inspect}"
 puts "Array[#{x.inspect}] gives #{Array[x].inspect}"
#added this ^^^^^^ one
 puts '============================'
end

Todd