From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2000-06-06T06:58:05-05:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:03123] Re: Min and max?

schneik@us.ibm.com writes:

> So in addition to this:
> 
>     # ruby -e 'print ["computer ","Boston ", "Austin ", "another "].sort,
> "\n"'
>     Austin Boston another computer
> 
> which isn't what I normally want, I would like to do this:
> 
>     # ruby -e 'print ["computer ","Boston ", "Austin ", "another
> "].dict_sort, "\n"'
>    another Austin Boston computer

If you're going this route, a more Ruby-ish alternative might be to
have various classes (such as string) define a set of proc objects
that had different sort behaviors:


  [ ...] sort &String::dict_order
  [ ...] sort &String::case_insensitive_order
  [ ...] sort &Number::ignore_sign_order

and so on.

Alternatively (and less minimally) have the classes each wrap 'sort'

  [ ...] String::sort_dict_order
  [ ...] String::sort_case_insensitive_order
  [ ...] Number::sort_ignore_sign_order


Regards


Dave